(pictured left)Le marabout, 1912/1913, Henri Matisse, Private Collection.
As shown by a couple of Matisse’s more ambitious works, his answer to this query is a resounding “no.” Matisse articulates this with Le marabout (1912/1913), where his contrast between East and West is much more discreet and thus more powerful as he decides that European influence in Tangier is undesirable. Unlike the previous sketches and Vue sur la baie de Tanger, all of which appear to have been made in relative haste, Le marabout is carefully crafted. The artist has removed any notion of European presence and focuses in entirely on one of Tangier’s more Eastern street corners. Depicted here is another tomb, that of the marabout, Sidi Berraisoul, on the rue Ben Abbou (Cowart et. al, 64) In this painting Matisse seems to peer out from a shaded alley to see the sun beaming on the dome of the tomb. At the time of this painting’s completion, the artist had evidenced less and less an interest in the tomb from an architectural standpoint. He did still pay some attention to structural features, again hinting at longitudinal lines on the dome, but the once-sharp lines are softened and forms have become blurred. Though shadows dominate the composition, they do not cover the tomb’s dome. Through strokes of bright white and yellow, Matisse separated the tomb from its surroundings. The resulting mood is highly spiritual and distinctly Eastern, since it has been accomplished without any notion of iconography as is consistent with Islamic religious tradition. This mood is portrayed, first of all, through the dome that reaches into the sky near the top of the canvas, just as it does in his drawing, Casbah: Marabout et drapeau (1912/1913). 
The viewpoint is from below, like a pilgrim’s, gazing upwards toward the revered monument. Also, the sun shining on the dome connects the tomb with the heavens, a fitting natural phenomenon for the saint who sleeps within. More importantly, this marabout holds an added mysterious aura because Matisse’s viewing point is probably as close as the artist could get, as, in the words of Roger Benjamin, these tombs “may not be visited by non-believers” (Turner and Benjamin, 77) As a Westerner, he could not experience the tomb from the inside but was still able to capture some of the site’s significance via painting it from the exterior. His inability to enter the tomb plays out the East-West contrast much more implicitly than the previously mentioned works. Simultaneously, Matisse’s recognition that he cannot gain unrestricted access is a further reminder that Europeans do not belong.
(pictured right) Casbah: marabout et drapeau, 1912/1913, Henri Matisse, Private Collection.