Figure décorative sur fond ornemental

Matisse painted this over 1925 and 1926, during the long stretch he spent in Nice on the Mediterranean, where he filled rooms with patterned hangings, mirrors and models posed as odalisques. The nude here is handled almost like one of his sculptures, the body simplified into firm, weighted volumes. Around her everything riots. A background of ornamental medallions, flowers and curling arabesques presses right up to the same plane as the figure, so she sits among the decor rather than in front of it. He finished it in time for the Salon des Tuileries in June 1926, where it was much argued over. It has been one of his most reproduced and discussed paintings ever since, and now belongs to the Centre Pompidou in Paris.