MUSIC (SKETCH)
HENRI MATISSE, 1907
Okay, honestly, this one's a scribbly little warm-up for the big one. Total compliment, by the way. A doodle Matisse tossed off before the main event, which happens to be hanging right over there, and happens to be one of the most famous paintings on the planet. So it's worth a minute. Three naked people on a hill, making music. About as close to heaven as Matisse gets. And the one out front, sawing on a violin? Not random. He played the violin himself, every single day of his life. He was scared of going blind, and the way he figured it, a blind man can't paint, but he can still play. Music was his safety net. So the guy he sticks out front of paradise is playing the one thing he was sure he'd never lose. Now look how little he uses to pull it off. A pink shape, a black line, and that's a whole person. The charcoal lines still showing, never painted over. Because he's working something out. That maybe his real gift isn't piling it on. It's stripping it back. A whole human being out of almost nothing, and somehow it's still breathing. And that's the trick that becomes Dance. You're looking at the rehearsal.