Textiles were the key to Matisse's visual imagination. His ancestors had been weavers for generations: the textures and vibrancy of cloth were in his blood. Although Matisse was to outgrow every other influence, textiles retained their power to inspire his imagination throughout his life. His studio in Nice was a treasure house of exotic Persian carpets, delicate Arab embroideries, richly hued African wall hangings, curtains, costumes, patterned screens and backcloths. This sumptuously illustrated book, which includes over 100 works by Matisse together with numerous colourful fabrics, is the catalogue of a groundbreaking exhibition at the Musee Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambresis; the Royal Academy of Arts, London; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Matisse's relationship with the textiles that surrounded him from his earliest days is revealed here for the first time. Charting how the fabrics he painted from became the very fabric of his paintings, the authors examine the ways in which Matisse used what he called his "working library" of textiles to furnish, order and compose some of the twentieth century's most pioneering works of art.