Nude, Left Hand near Shoulder

Matisse explained the centrality of studio models to his artistic practice: “My models, human figures, are never just ‘extras’ in an interior. They are the principal theme of my work. . . . Their forms are not always perfect, but they are always expressive. The emotional interest they inspire in me is not particularly apparent in the representation of their bodies, but often rather by the lines or the special values distributed over the whole canvas or paper and which form its orchestration, its architecture.”