Henri Matisse's Great Leap Forward

Shaft of Sunlight, the Woods of Trivaux, 1917
Made in a parklike wood near the artist's home in Issy, this work treats its subject in an extremely abstract manner. The shaft of sunlight in the title is rendered as a gigantic white flash piercing the trees, evoking not so much the actual light, but the emotional effect it produced. Matisse kept this canvas for himself long after he finished it, choosing not to present it to the public until 1951, when it was part of an exhibition of his work at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

• Article: Great Leap Forward