Henri Matisse (1869–1954)—orientalist, insomniac, and a giant of modern art—who better to capture the essence of the classic The Thousand and One Nights, or Arabian Nights—a story of wakefulness and fear of death overcome by creativity and art.

Matisse was 81 when he created the colorful and joyous paper cut-out The Thousand and One Nights. Ailing, unable to sleep, kept alive by his drive to create, he had much in common with the beautiful young Scheherezade, the legendary narrator and heroine of the Arabian Nights. In this great work of literature, compiled over the centuries from Persian, Asian, and Egyptian tales, a king married a maiden each day and had her beheaded the next morning. Scheherezade, his thousandth wife/victim, saved herself from death by telling an enthralling story that she ended at a moment of suspense just after dawn, ensuring her survival through 1,001 nights. Like her tales, Matisse’s Thousand and One Nights is a work of rich symbolism, magic, and skill created at a moment of intense personal difficulty.