Art historian Hilary Spurling has described this ``stern encounter'' as ``portray(ing) the profound underlying shape or mechanism of a relationship laid down for both parties on the day, soon after they first met in 1897, when Matisse warned his future wife that, dearly as he loved _her_, he would always love painting more.'' <sep>, Pronoun: her <sep>, A: Hilary Spurling <sep>, B: Matisse