From the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada: OLD - The odalisque, or exotic nude, is a motif that Matisse returned to repeatedly throughout his life. This work belongs to a series that he painted from 1918 until 1928 during the winter months he spent in Nice. About 1930 Matisse told an interviewer: "As for the odalisques, I saw them in Morocco, which makes it possible for me to paint them in France without playing make-believe . . . ." The model for the majority of these odalisque paintings was the young art student Henriette Darricarrère (b. 1901), whose family lived near Matisse's rented hotel rooms.
