I think of this wonderful Matisse portrait of Sarah Stein at SF MoMA as their Mona Lisa. Though small in size, the rendering by Matisse of his devoted patron shows her half smile in an exotic triangular framing of her arms. Stein and her husband Michael were painted by the artist in 1916 and these works eventually came to SF MoMA separately in a deal brokered between two important patrons, Elise Haas and Nathan Cummings. Only Sarah is on view now. As the sister in law of Gertrude, Sarah is less known but had an important role in supporting and encouraging Matisse when he was destitute. She helped him found a school in Paris which gave him the means to do more work of his own. We think of Matisse as the perennial star but in his early career this was not the case. Stein was a devotee of Christian Science and rigorous physical activity to help clear the mind. Matisse may have suggested this physicality in Stein’s arms-up pose. She also commissioned a house from Le Corbusier in the Parisian banlieu, at that time the largest private home he designed. That the portrait came to San Francisco is only fitting since that was where Sarah had grown up.