Indeed, both in Nice and in the southern French town of Vence (where he named his villa La Rêve, or “The Dream”), Matisse constantly kept nearby his “working library”—a large cache of ceramics, textiles, statuettes, plants, birds, and other objects that captured his fascination. Not only were they visually appealing, these items also served as subject matter for his work—perhaps one reason why he seems to have rarely faced creative block throughout his prolific five-decade career. “The object is an actor,” he once offered. “A good actor can have a part in 10 different plays; an object can play a different role in 10 different pictures.”