Derain painted this portrait of Matisse during the artists' shared summer in Collioure, when the two men were experimenting side-by-side in their work. As in most Fauvist portraiture, a detailed likeness of the subject was not the artist's goal. Derain's chief focus was to express a state of mind through the use of visible brushwork and fluid lines, both of which accentuated his applications of pure color. The sitter's right side is shadowed in violet and turquoise, and the left side of his face is highlighted in broad strokes of pink and red; this non-naturalistic use of saturated color underscores the figure's direct, intense gaze. While the background is painted in thin, vertical strokes, Matisse's head emerges more strongly in impasto brushwork, as if Derain were building it up from the paint itself, rather than through the traditional use of shading or perspective.