Fauvism underpinned Henri Matisse’s oeuvre. Matisse’s whole career, even the art that came before Fauvism, is otherwise inconceivable. This fundamental stratum, heavily seamed with the tangled and all-pervasive braids of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy, provides the connections and continuity, with the right kind of cause, that hold his creations together in their entirety. The essential color of this stratum is the vital one of red. Most obviously, this vitality pervades The Red Studio (Fig. 2.4 ), overflowing as it does into Matisse’s chosen title for the work. “Here, then, is the wall of fire literally standing before us, with its effects clearly displayed,” to requote Pierre Schneider. “The overall coat of red paint obliterates foreground and background. There is no view through the window, no open door, nothing exterior to the painting—to the red surface.” This singular “coating adheres to the picture plane like Nessus’ robe of fire, consuming whatever is disclosed solely in illusionistic depth: the three-dimensional frame of the room (walls, floor) and its furnishings (chairs, tables, easels)” (341–342). In fine, “where color exists in its pure state,” as Matisse intends, and as Schneider expounds, “there is no room for anything other than painting, that is, the surface which it covers—its ‘here and now’ which is impermeable to simulated events and the fictive space they unfold in.” This exclusivity of presence helps to explain why “there are no hands on the face of the clock in The Red Studio” (342); that face is reduced, devoid of content, deliberately emptied. “The only objects to have crossed the wall of fire are the works of art themselves,” as Schneider maintains, “bright and buoyant against the red ground.” The wicker armchair and the clock are exceptions to this rule, but they are so “in appearance only” (342):