Henri Matisse used to look out windows a lot ... In Corsica, Matisse had painted a view of the bay beyond an olive tree and the red roofs of a factory. The sea beyond, he wrote, was “blue ...

The winter of 1941 was a bleak one for Henri Matisse ... is the double window of the Tree of Life. Matisse even designed vestments, including a striking black chasuble for Masses for the Dead.

Few have achieved a more luxuriant signature than Henri Matisse. A dozen years have passed ... yet each one cries ‘fig tree.’ ” Seraglios & Poufs. His performance on canvas shows that ...