January 1, 2025 marked the day when images of Henri Matisse’s paintings moved into the public domain. This means that some of his most iconic images will end up on T-shirts and lunch boxes, but it also means that I can present to you some of his most alluring paintings on the theme of a window view. Matisse painted them for decades, as soon as he found his stride among the numerous styles that emerged at the turn of the 20th century—Symbolism, Divisionism, Syncretism, Cubism, and many other “isms”—that inspired him or, conversely, got him riled.

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