The Egyptian Curtain, 1948 by Henri Matisse

The Egyptian Curtain is considered the artist's last major painting. In it, Matisse again turns to an old favourite theme, the window. Beyond the window, a palm is exploding in a firework of leafage; beneath the window the painter has placed another favourite motif, a still life of fruits. His enthusiasm for materials with striking patterns, such as in this Egyptian curtain, had provided the title for this painting. In this work as in others before, black is conspicuously deployed, not to express darkness but to reflect light. The brightness of the other colours becomes all the more intense.

The canvas itself can be made out through thin paint at points, and elsewhere has been left unpainted, so that it too contributes to the overall image. The Egyptian Curtain achieves a constant interchange of positives and negatives, and so creates an effortless meshing of spatial depth and decorative surface.