''The Painter and His Model'' (French titles: ''Le Peintre dans son atelier'', ''Le peintre et son modèle, l'Atelier, quai Saint-Michel'') is a work by

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

painted late 1916, early 1917. It is currently in the collection of the

Musée National d'Art Moderne The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. In 2021 it ranked 10th in ...

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

.Henri Matisse, ''Le Peintre dans son atelier'', 1916-17, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
/ref> In this work Matisse depicted himself in his studio on the fourth floor of 19 Quai Saint-Michel, at work on his painting ''Laurette in a Green Robe'' (1916). This painting belongs to the series of Matisse's studio with views of l'

Île de la Cité Île de la Cité (; English: City Island) is an island in the river Seine in the center of Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the Roman governor. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace ...

and the

Pont Saint-Michel Pont Saint-Michel is a bridge linking the Place Saint-Michel on the Rive Gauche, left bank of the river Seine River, Seine to the Île de la Cité. It was named after the nearby chapel of Saint-Michel. It is near Sainte Chapelle and the Palais ...

. According to Matisse (when the painting was acquired by the Musée National d'Art Moderne in 1945), this work was painted in 1917. But the picture in progress on the easel, ''Laurette sur fond noir, robe verte (Laurette in a Green Robe)'', Metropolitan Museum of Art, is signed and dated 1916.Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Anne Baldassari, Claude Laugier, ''Œuvres de Matisse'', Paris, Éditions du Centre Pompidou, Collections du Musée national d'art moderne, 1989 ''The Painter and His Model'' represents the same model, Laurette, sitting on a pink armchair, silhouetted against the dark background of the studio wall; suggesting the two works were painted around the same time, at the end of 1916. The third part of the triptych dedicated to the Paris workshop and its view of the Pont Saint-Michel, ''L'atelier du Quai Saint-Michel'' he Phillips CollectionHenri Matisse, ''Studio, Quai Saint-Michel'', 1916, The Phillips Collection
/ref> is also attributed to 1916. Art historian Jack Flam further emphasizes the color ratios (the use of black) and composition between the canvas and the MNAM painting and two of the most important works of 1916, ''Les Demoiselles à la rivière'' and ''Les Marocains''. These arguments lead to the conclusion that ''The Painter and His Model'' was painted by Matisse toward the end of 1916, and possibly finished early 1917.

References

1917 paintings Paintings by Henri Matisse Paintings in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne Paintings about painting Oil on canvas paintings {{20C-painting-stub