'My models, human figures, are never mere attendant figures in an interior. They are the main theme of my work.'
One of the greatest of 20th-century painters, Henri Matisse, died in 1954. In this film, David Sylvester examines the relationship between the artist and his model as it appears in Matisse's work.
The film also includes extracts from the painter's notebooks read by Alec McCowen and a unique sequence filmed in 1946 showing Matisse at work in his studio, drawing from life.

(Colour)