The Ultimate Feminine Twist of Matisse's New Works

In the end, all Zorah paintings are more civilized, less vulgar and sexual than Matisse’s “primitive� depictions of Fauve women, showing an active, not passive, model with a developed theme of Moroccan culture. This departure from the eroticized, sensual Fauvist woman in favor of an individualized, civilized woman confirms Matisse’s development in the direction of more mature painting of women that is exemplified by his works such as Zorah en Jaune and Sur La Terrasse. And thus we revisit Matisse’s refusal to differentiate between a woman and a picture during his Fauve period. By the epitome of his Moroccan period, in which he captured Zorah so artfully in Sur La Terrasse, was Matisse painting a woman or a picture? The answer is certainly “woman� when studying the simple, civilized Zorah. A prostitute by profession, and thus no model of purity, she is, however, ironically presented as a woman of culture in Matisse’s paintings. By focusing on the same woman during both trips to Morocco, Matisse was able to develop a finer, more meticulous style than Fauvism allowed for Fauve women. As a result, Morocco, and more precisely, Zorah, stimulated Matisse to paint beyond the limiting scope of Fauvism, which led him to an entirely new level of avant-garde in his artwork. This juxtaposition is the ultimate result of Matisse’s Moroccan voyages: the Western, primitive woman and the non-Western, cultured woman. As Matisse would write home from Tanger with praise for this bliss of learning to paint the female form, “Painting has totally taken possession of me� (qtd. Cowart et. al 22). As such, the model Zorah emphasizes this end to Fauvism’s primitivism with the perfect feminine touch of new beginnings.