In the present work, Matisse constructed the subject through a variety of bold hues--contrasting the vibrant color of the wallpaper with its incised design against the softness of the gray dress and its violet stripes.

Matisse was intensely interested in the attire of his models and had accumulated chests of costumes, which held, as Hillary Spurling has noted, "Moroccan jackets, robes, blouses, boleros, caps and scarves, from which his models could be kitted out in outfits distantly descended--like Bakst's ballet, and a whole series of films using Nice locations in the 1920s as a substitute for the mysterious East--from the French painterly tradition of orientalisation"