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Interior scenes painted behind closed doors become miniature theatres in which the relationship between the painter and his models was refined as if in a laboratory. The viewer’s gaze loses itself among mirrors, flowers, silks, jewels and abundant hair, while in the arabesque drawn by the line on the canvas, desire, disquiet and prostration lie in wait, as in Baudelaire’s poems.

The Inattentive Reader
Poppies

Portrait of Marguerite Asleep













Henri Matisse
Poppies, 1919
(Les Pavots)
Oil on canvas. 100,6 x 81,3 cm
The Detroit Institute of Arts.
Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill
© Succession H. Matisse / VEGAP 2009



Henri Matisse
The Inattentive Reader, 1919
(La Liseuse distraite)
Oil on canvas. 73 x 92,4 cm
Tate: Bequeathed by Montague Shearman through the Contemporary Art Society 1940
Henri Matisse
Portrait of Marguerite Asleep, 1920
(Portrait de Marguerite endormie)
Oil on canvas. 46 x 65 cm
Private Collection