From the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City: Notwithstanding their kinship with earlier works by Ingres and Delacroix, the harem pictures Matisse made in Nice, such as this odalisque of 1927, had a more practical basis. As Matisse explained: "I paint odalisques in order to paint the nude. Otherwise, how is the nude to be painted without being artificial? But also, I know they exist. I was in Morocco. I saw them."
