La Leçon de peinture or La Séance de peinture [The Painting Lesson or The Painting Session]

Painted in 1919 and held in the National Galleries of Scotland, 'La Leçon de peinture' (The Painting Lesson or The Painting Session) depicts a scene of artistic instruction or practice in a domestic interior, a subject that allowed Matisse to reflect on the act of painting itself within the painted surface. Such self-referential compositions were relatively rare for him, though he did occasionally include representations of artworks within his interiors. The year 1919 was transitional: he had recently settled in Nice and was moving away from the austere, Cubism-influenced severity of his 1910s work toward the warmer, more sensuous interiors of his mature Nice period. The Scottish National Galleries holds a fine group of modern French paintings, and this work is among the most intimate records of Matisse's domestic and studio life from this period.

The composition combines the figure study with interior decoration in a way characteristic of Matisse's Nice transition. Light from an unseen source creates warm tonal areas across the figures and setting.