While many art-goers flock to the Smithsonians and other galleries to see the many compelling traveling exhibits that make their way through town, Washington’s art museums contain a treasure trove of works of historical and artistic importance in permanent collections that often go overlooked. This post is the first in a series exploring some of the paintings, sculptures and other works that are always on display in D.C.

One such painting is Henri Matisse’s Studio, Quai Saint-Michel, housed at The Phillips Collection. The Phillips is home to three drawings and two oils by Matisse, a French artist known for his brightly colored paintings in the Fauvist style.

Museum founder Duncan Phillips did not initially like Matisse’s work — around 1914 he believed that “in Matisse the degeneration of… expressionism reached its bottom…[He] creates patterns unworthy of…little children and benighted savages, patterns not only crude but deliberately false and at times insanely depraved.” He had changed his mind about post-impressionism by 1927, when he said Matisse “…is one of those rare artists who dare to create an abstract style which corresponds with their crystal-clear mental conceptions and with their exhilarating visual sensations.”

Matisse painted Studio, Quai Saint-Michel early in his career, in 1916. A mix of traditional and abstract styles, the painting's solemn image may have been a response to World War I, a source of anxiety for Matisse. The painting’s first owner declared it “a most difficult picture to live with,” but Phillips took a chance on it. He added the unsigned oil to the collection in 1940, 10 years after the artist visited the museum and expressed his regard for the American paintings on display and the Pierre Bonnard collection.

In Studio, Quai Saint-Michel, Matisse incorporates some of his most prevalent themes — the artist’s studio, patterns (the floor and the bedspread), the artist and his model, and the open window, through which the Seine and the Pont Saint-Michel are visible. Visually the painting juxtaposes the indoor scene's hard pattern lines and a model’s curves with the outdoor geometric buildings and arc of the bridge. Matisse often painted nude figures, and unlike in many of his other paintings, here depicts her facial features, hinting at a more intimate relationship. The easel’s half-painted canvas and the artist’s empty chair suggest that he has left the room for a brief moment.

Studio, Quai Saint-Michel has been influential for other artists — American artist Richard Diebenkorn visited the Phillips frequently in the 1940s while stationed in Washington during World War II and asserted that “no painting had greater impact” on his own work during that period.

Studio, Quai Saint-Michel is on display indefinitely at The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St. NW. See their web site for hours and admission prices.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Studio, Quai Saint-Michel, 1916
Oil on canvas
58 ¼ x 46 inches
Unsigned
Acquired 1940
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.