Matisse's representations of his studio often include glimpses of other artwork. Here he depicts the left half of his large canvas, Dance I (1909, Museum of Modern Art, New York). The carefully arranged furniture in the foreground flattens the pictorial space. The back leg of the tripod sculpture stand appears to rest in the grass of the painting behind it. Similarly, the chair in the left corner is placed so that the top rung of its back extends a horizontal purple stripe across the canvas. In a simpler version of this composition (Pushkin Museum, Moscow), this stripe denotes the area of wall visible between Dance I and the studio floor.
