In reality, the background colors, and especially the highlights reflecting off the forehead, are brilliant – iridescent. And the lines that define the eyes, in contrast to the explosive brightness of the greens and orange, are so dark, so delicate and so precisely delivered, that you are not merely seeing a portrait of sensitive, intense man – the precise anguish of extreme sensitivity and violent intensity are alive in the process of viewing the image itself.

(You’re looking at a picture on a video screen, from a digitized photo I took from the actual painting – but do you see what I mean?)

So the point is this: Did Ricky appreciate going to Paris and seeing the works of master painters in actuality, as opposed to staying at home and looking at pictures of them in books?

Answer: Yes, he appreciated it very much.

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