The three sculptures and painting that hang over an ornate writing desk recreate the ambiance of Cone’s living room as seen in archival photographs. In ways that anticipate the eclecticism of contemporary lifestyle brands, for both Cone and Matisse the home was not only a space for family, but also for highlighting personal travels and the fantasy of escape. Matisse’s paintings of odalisques, often featuring women semi-nude or clad in costumes associated with the Eastern Mediterranean world, depart from stereotypical 19th-century Western conceptions of the harem. While Matisse would claim to have seen odaliques on his travels, his more likely inspiration was the Persian miniatures and other examples of Islamic decorative arts that he avidly studied in museums across Europe and collected in North Africa. In this small but powerful painting from 1928, decorative patterns become the dominant visual feature, as the ornamentation on walls, floors, and fabrics nearly subsumes the figure. The work embodies Matisse’s all-over sense of composition, where visual pleasure was not centralized solely in the form of the body. As he explained in his famous statement, “Notes of a Painter” from 1908: “Expression, for me, does not reside in passion bursting from a human face or manifested by violent movement. The entire arrangement of my picture is expressive ... Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter’s command to express his feelings.” Installed with BMA 1950.255; BMA 1950.424; BMA 1950.432; BMA 1950.1950.1985.8-9