Exhibition Of The Week Matisse In The Studio

Royal Academy, London W1 (020-7300 8090, www.royalacademy.org.uk). Until 12 November

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Henri Matisse “lived and worked in a beautiful muddle”, said Martin Gayford in The Spectator. Throughout his long career, he was “surrounded by clutter”, from textiles and ceramics to African sculptures and unusual cooking utensils. These objects would often turn up in his pictures, performing certain roles as if they were “actors”, sometimes appearing to take on lives of their own. This “marvellous” new exhibition at the Royal Academy looks at how Matisse was influenced by his possessions, chronicling the role these “odds, ends and bibelots” played in the creation of his “modern masterpieces”. The show brings together around 30 objects Matisse kept in his studio, pairing them with drawings, paintings, sculptures and collages in which they are either directly depicted or m