Blue Arabesque

These meditations inspired by a Matisse painting are “a paean to the act of seeing, celebrating our capacity to be transformed by the truths art holds.” — The New York Times Book Review Named a  Chicago Tribune  Best Book of the Year and a  Los Angeles Times  Favorite Nonfiction of the Year Just out of college, Patricia Hampl was mesmerized by a Matisse painting in the Art Institute of Chicago: an aloof woman gazing at goldfish in a bowl, a Moroccan screen behind her. In Blue