The oil on canvas measuring 23 by 26 inches is held in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C.. Matisse's style changed and evolved drastically throughout his career, including his wide and varying collection of paintings depicting female nudes.

The red decorative element, possibly a tapestry or a painting, hanging on the wall and the striped armchair that she is sitting in offer movement to the viewer's eye.

The gaze of the prostitute in the painting prevents easy contemplation of her body, she is guarded, she is challenging you, and she is dominating the relationship between the viewer and herself, with her as the object being viewed.

[1] Matisse's model for many of his paintings including Odalisque with Raised Arms is Henriette Darricarrière.

[4] Matisse created many Odalisque paintings in the nineteen-twenties, when Henriette Darricarrière was his main model, and when he was still working loosely under the style of fauvism.

Fauvism in painting is characterized by the isolation of individual brush strokes on the canvas and coloristic freedom that moves away from naturalistic representation.