Sitzender Riffkabyle

In December 1912 Matisse was wintering in Tangier, on the Moroccan coast, painting his way out of the argument over cubism that had taken over Paris. That same year France had pushed Morocco into becoming a protectorate, and the country was under a new colonial order when Matisse arrived looking for strong light and unfamiliar pattern. His model was a young man from the Rif, the mountainous region of northern Morocco, sat down in a green robe and filling almost the whole tall canvas. Matisse made him monumental, broad and still, in the flat brilliant colour and firm outline he had drawn from watching Islamic decoration. He painted a companion picture of the same man standing. The two were meant to hang together, two views of one Rif tribesman Matisse met in a single Moroccan winter.