This work was specially painted for the cover of L'Oeil to mark the magazine's 70th anniversary.
“Henri Matisse is one of the painters I look at the most. Looking for what might be most easily recognizable [...], I stopped at ''La Blouse roumaine'' (1953). I wanted to ask the person posing to find the attitude that referred back to the original painting, and we saw that it was through the posture of the hands. It's a painting that Matisse reworked, erased and then started again. [...] I realized that what interested me most was to paint what was in front of me, without narration. To forget myself, perhaps, simply in the presence of what I see. To observe without preconceived opinion. It's almost an ethic. The painting [...] is a tribute to Matisse, as humble as possible. Painting is a conversation between all painters” - Delhomme