I want to reach that state of condensation of sensations which constitutes a picture.

Matisse frames painting not as a literal transcription of what the eye sees, but as an act of distillation. “Condensation of sensations” suggests gathering the many fleeting impressions—color, light, rhythm, emotional tone, bodily feeling—into a concentrated visual statement. The “state” he seeks implies a hard-won equilibrium: simplifying, selecting, and organizing experience until it becomes coherent and self-sufficient as a picture. The remark aligns with Matisse’s broader modernist aim to make form and color carry the weight of lived perception, so that the finished work communicates an intensified essence rather than a catalog of details.