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But a stroll past the frankly conventional and documentary 19th century paintings in the show reaches a most satisfying climax in the final room. Here the curators have hung two Kandinskys, Improvisation 6 (Africa) and Oriental, and five Matisses. Familiar in their radical perception of intense color and patterning, these stunning modernist pictures may now be clearly seen to spring from the homely anecdotal function of 19th century Orientalist art. From Matisse's Odalisque in Red Trousers, with its wild yet canny mixture of background patterns, it is only a step or two up to the tower of the east wing of the National Gallery, where Matisse's superb Grande Décoration avec Masques permanently resides—surely the glory of Orientalism in our century. —By Patricia Blake