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Lesson Plans—Works of Art
Object Descriptions and Suggested Discussion Questions

Henri Matisse (French 1869–1954) Seated Odalisque, Left Knee Bent, Ornamental Background and Checkerboard, 1928 Oil on canvas The Baltimore Museum of Art: The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland BMA 1950.255

Experience the exotic atmosphere of Morocco without leaving the comfort of Matisse's apartment in Nice. After the First World War, Matisse began to spend much of his time in the resort city of Nice, on the French Mediterranean coast. In 1921 he rented an apartment at 1 Place Charles-Félix and made it his home until 1938. The apartment was the setting for numerous paintings Matisse completed throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Paintings like Seated Odalisque come alive with bright colors, patterns and decorations exported from the Middle East.

Matisse explored his interest in other cultures by visiting the Moorish cities of southern Spain in 1910 and Morocco in 1912. With each visit Matisse collected tapestries, clothing and ornaments he used to transform his apartment into a setting that emulated the Moroccan interiors visited and imagined by the artist. He placed models against these dramatic backdrops like actresses on a stage. Here the model plays the part of an odalisque. An odalisque is a female servant or member of a harem. This French word comes from oda, the Turkish word for room, which clearly states the domestic domain of the servant.

Indeed, the woman depicted here is little more than another feature of the room, like the drapery, cushions or checkerboard. The full title of the painting, Seated Odalisque, Left Knee Bent, Ornamental Background and Checkerboard, is a visual cataloguing of the main elements of the room. The bent left knee distinguishes her from the other odalisques found in Matisse's work. Her face is characterized by an economic use of line and color, and her fair skin is set in contrast against her dark hair. Matisse dresses her in colorful clothing and large jewelry to introduce an element of the foreign to her figure. Her central placement in the left side of the painting hides a convergence point of a variety of patterned rectangular planes. These patterns and shapes create a wonderful rhythmic movement as the eye roves through the painting. The crosshatching of the pink carpet is juxtaposed with the black and white checks of the game board. An arabesque pattern of curves found frequently in Moroccan art frames pink flowers on the wall. Similar flower shapes are found on the rug.

Matisse expressed his thoughts on this period of his work and the subject of the odalisque by saying, "The Odalisques were the bounty of a happy nostalgia, a lovely, vivid dream, and the almost ecstatic, enchanted days and nights of the Moroccan climate. I felt an irresistible need to express that ecstasy, that divine unconcern, in corresponding colored rhythms, rhythms of sunny and lavish figures and colors."

Suggested Discussion Questions

• Matisse was influenced by his visits to other countries in creating this painting. Identify some of the objects in this scene that came from a country other than France. What are some influences from other cultures that you can see in the United States?
• What are some elements that help move your eye through the painting? What elements does the artist repeat in different areas of the composition? (color, pattern, shape)
• How do you think the life of an odalisque and the life of a model would be similar or different?