Interior at Nice

This tall oil painting, about a metre and a third high, shows a hotel room in Nice, on the Mediterranean coast of southern France. The floor is covered in pink tiles. The wall is yellow, decorated with swirling, curling patterns called arabesques. Your eye is drawn to a young woman sitting out on the balcony with her back to the sea. Shimmering curtains frame her, and she looks straight out at you. The room feels bright, patterned and warm, as if the whole space is made of colour.

Start with the woman, and notice how far above the scene you seem to stand. The high viewpoint and wide, plunging perspective pull all the attention toward her on the balcony. Next, search the room for pieces Matisse painted again and again: a dressing table with a skirt around it, an oval mirror, and a shuttered French window, which is a tall window that opens like a door. Finally, find the painting hanging on the wall. It also shows this same woman, so she appears in the picture twice.

Beginning in 1917, Henri Matisse spent most winters in Nice. He often stayed at the Hôtel Mediterranée, a building in the Rococo style, which means richly ornamented. He later fondly called it fake, absurd and delicious. This painting, made in 1919 or 1920, is perhaps the most ambitious of a series of pictures that use the hotel as a backdrop. The woman is Antoinette Arnoux, his favorite model at the time. Matisse often placed a young woman somewhere in these hotel scenes.

The balcony was one of Matisse's favorite themes. It allowed him to link the inside of a room and the outdoors into one continuous space, shaped by patterns and softened, shifting light. Notice how the wallpaper, the tiles and the curtains all help build that single space. Then spend a little longer with the woman herself. She sits with her back to the sea, yet she turns and gazes directly at you, as if you have just walked into the room.