Unidentified
Portable Writing Desk
18th century
Physical Qualities
Walnut, secondary woods, copper alloy, iron, bone, gilding
, 19 × 31 × 15 in. (48.3 × 78.7 × 38.1 cm.)
Credit Line
The Cone Collection, Bequest of Frederic W. Cone
Object Number
1950.1985.8
This installation of works be Henri Matisse with an ornate desk recreates a wall of Etta Cone's living room in Baltimore (see image). For Cone, her apartment was a space for family and highlighting personal travels with works of art acquired while away from home. She displayed paintings of odalisques, or concubines, appearing semi-nude or clad in costumes, which Europeans and Americans associated with the Eastern Mediterranean world, While Matisse claimed to have seen odalisques during his travels, he was more likely inspired by Persian and Islamic art he avidly studied in museums across Europe and collected in North Africa.
Installed with BMA 1950.255; 1950.427; 1950.428; and 1950.432
Baltimore Museum of Art, "A Picture Book: 200 Objects in the Baltimore Museum of Art", illus. p.38.
Maker
Unidentified
