Henri Matisse working in his studio in Vence

This black and white photograph captures the painter Henri Matisse at work in his studio in Vence, a small town in the south of France. By 1949, Matisse was elderly and in poor health, yet here he is, leaning on a long stick to sketch directly onto the walls. The drawings around him are studies for the Chapelle du Rosaire, a chapel he designed inside and out, which he later called his greatest achievement. Using a stick let him draw on surfaces too far to reach by hand, a clever workaround for an old master who refused to stop creating.

The photograph comes from Robert Capa, a name better known for war photography than quiet studio scenes. Capa cofounded the famous Magnum agency and spent much of his career documenting conflict, so this gentle moment is a nice change of pace for him. The image works because of its honesty. You can feel the focus in Matisse's posture and the calm of the sunlit room, with its tiled floor and simple wooden doors. It is less a posed portrait than a glimpse of an artist simply being himself, still chasing ideas late in life.