For Matisse, the studio was the place where the real world receded, where magic could be made and art ruled. Once he absorbed what Fauvism had to teach him about natural light and pure color, Matisse didn’t get out much. He was essentially an artist of interiors and especially of the studio: the spaces where he lived and worked, where he painted portraits, worked from live models, sometimes including views out windows, sometimes simply portraying the rooms themselves.

In “The Red Studio,” where this painting sits on the floor, the shadow is boiled down to a brushy purple shape.

(Roberta Smith, “‘The Red Studio,’ Matisse’s Masterpiece, Gets a Life All Its Own,” NYTimes, 4-29-22)

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