I. Matisse : the man. 1.The media as medium : public self-portraits
2. "Brutal egotism" : Gertrude Stein's Matisse
II. Matisse : his work. 3. Strangers in paradise : Bathers by a river
4. Chamber music : Woman before an aquarium and Woman on a rose divan
Coda : some propositions concerning Matisse's art of the 1920s
III. Matisse : his critics. 5. A formalist critique : a dance critic looks at Matisse : Andrâe Levinson in 1929
6. A vitalist critique : decoration and spirituality : the Byzantine/Islamic Matisse