'Matisse in the Studio' at the Royal Academy

The current exhibition at the Royal Academy is 'Matisse in the Studio' upstairs in the Sackler Gallery, up all those glass stairs, and it is exactly what it says on the tin. We see a collection of M. Matisse's 'stuff' that also featured in or influenced his paintings. Matisse collected stuff and used it in his paintings, a vase here, a mask there, a table with more stuff on it or a silk screen in the background. He didn't make these things up, they were there in his studio ready to be called onto his canvases. This exhibition tells the story of his stuff.

The theme of the exhibition is kicked off in style by the first painting called simply 'Vase of Flowers' from 1924 and, beside the painting, in a glass case, is the very same green glass vase that features in the painting. On the other side is another painting featuring that vase. That nicely summed up this exhibition to me - see that thing there? it's in *that* painting. And it is.

The artefacts aren't always as obvious as the vase, of course, and they're sometimes in the background but all help to make up the totality of a painting. According to one of the signs in the exhibition Matisse described his stuff as a 'working library' waiting to be called up for duty in this painting or that.

The exhibition includes works from throughout Matisse's career and shows us how he continually used his stuff to illustrate and augment his paintings. He seems to use his stuff to add more patterns and shapes to his paintings and there's nothing wrong with that. One of my favourites was 'Yellow Odalisque' with it's lush, bright colours and balanced composition that make it part still life and part portrait. Which is it and does it matter?

The little table beside the chair is the object on display in the exhibition beside this gorgeous painting. It's not an exact rendering of the table by any means but that's not the point - it's there, it's part of the whole.

There are a few of Matisse's 'odalisque' paintings in the exhibition and they're all gorgeous. Another is the 'Reclining Odalisque' beside a tray with an elaborate tea pot like a samovar (I assume) and this is what is on display.

We see the photo that inspired 'Standing Nude' in the Tate collection, bronze busts, African masks that feature in paintings and inspired Matisse's developing style. We even get a few of his cut-outs. That old man never stopped creating.

One of my favourites of his later works was 'Red Interior: Still Life on a Blue Table' and, by this time, I'd stopped looking for the artefact near the painting and just indulged in the colours and shapes in the painting. I couldn't help but look through the open window towards the garden and wonder what flowers were out there under the trees, what shapes the flower beds were in and whether the flowers were ready to pick to put in a vase and paint them. There's always something else to paint.

It's not a very big exhibition but it is really gorgeous. If you even vaguely like Matisse then you must visit it and drink in the paintings and the objects that feature in them.