The article considers the painting "Branche de prunier, fond vert," 1948, by Henri Matisse. The painting was one of the last the artist did before he changed mediums to sculpture and cutouts, and it revisits the questions of line and color seen in Matisse's earlier Fauvist works. The seemingly decorative figure of the woman towards the back of the work is revealed to be the force from which the colors and shapes of the composition emerge.