Near the end of Jazz, Matisse devoted three plates to the idea of paradise. In the three Lagoon images in Jazz, the artist’s style becomes increasingly simplified as he depicts underwater scenes. His interest in positive and negative space, particularly evident in Forms (plate IX), crystalizes in these abstract plates of organic forms. The Lagoon plates are reminiscent of the innovative cover designs, based on his cutouts, that Matisse made earlier for the journal Verve, published by Tériade from 1937 to 1960.