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©Henri Matisse - Studio Interior 1903

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From the Tate Gallery, London, UK:
This painting shows a corner of Matisse's apartment at 19 Quai St. Michel, Paris, where he lived from 1899 to 1907. The subjects of domestic interiors and still-lifes (in this painting a carefully arranged still-life of a vase of flowers, jugs, a glass containing a long spoon and a lemon on the small stand in the foreground) were typical of Matisse's works of around the turn of the century. Matisse attended life drawing and sculpture classes from 1899 to 1904 and much of his work in this period focuses on subject matter arising from his studio practice.
Studio Interior has traditionally been dated c.1899-1900. Christian Zervos, editor of Cahiers d'Art, identified the work in 1931 as having been painted in 1899 and claimed that it was Matisse's most characteristic work of that year. Zervos drew comparisons between this work and the painting of Cézanne, whose Three Bathers, c.1879-82 (Ville de Paris, Musée du Petit Palais), Matisse acquired in 1899. Although Zervos most likely based his article on information given to him by Matisse, the artist's memory may not have been