Odalisque with a Bowl of Fruit

Henri Matisse, French

1925

Lithograph

Saint Louis Art Museum

A seated woman in patterned clothing is depicted in a lithograph, with a bowl of fruit in front of her and a striped background behind. A seated woman in patterned clothing is depicted in a lithograph, with a bowl of fruit in front of her and a striped background behind. Henri Matisse depicted a white European woman wearing embroidered pants and an open top. She sits in a space with a richly patterned rug and striped wallpaper, giving the room an opulent look. Though made in Matisse’s studio in France, the print and its details are meant to suggest “exotic” regions of North Africa. Matisse had traveled to the French colony of Algeria in 1906 and the protectorate of Morocco in 1912 and 1913, where he claimed to have seen odalisques—concubines or enslaved women who li