The maquette for Mimosa reveals that Matisse composed the design using paper cut-outs, overlapping variations of leaf-like motifs in yellow, gray, black, and blue on a field divided into rectangles of varying shades of red. The subject may have been inspired by the Festival of Flowers, an annual celebration along the Côte d'Azur. But, in color and composition Mimosa appears indebted to the Coptic textiles Matisse so admired and the embroideries and oriental rugs he purchased on trips to Algeria, Morocco, and the markets of Nice and Paris. The rug's manufacture was the result of American ingenuity. It was commissioned in 1948 by the president of Alexander Smith & Sons, a New York company famous for its innovative power looms, which produced machine-made carpets closely resembling hand-knotted Orientals.