Les deux musiciennes 1921

Henri Matisse made "Les deux musiciennes" with graphite on paper. He's capturing these figures not with tight outlines, but with these beautifully smudgy, almost atmospheric marks. You can practically feel the give and take, the searching for form in the shadows, and the light is creating all these subtle volumes. I bet Matisse was thinking about the way light defines form, how a simple shift in tone can suggest weight, and how the slightest adjustment of a line can convey a world of emotion. Those lines around the figure on the right, how soft, they seem, and tentative! It makes me think about other drawings by other artists, all those back-and-forths, the endless conversation. Drawing is an exchange, between the eye, the hand, and the heart. The way they're sitting, so close, seems intimate. Matisse knew that capturing that feeling was more important than getting everything 'right'.