Matisse’s The Cowboy was likely inspired by the Buffalo Bill act made famous by Barnum and Bailey, the American traveling circus. Two abstracted figures printed in black stand out boldly against a simplified and geometric backdrop. The cowboy figure at left is atop a rearing horse, his lasso outstretched to capture the female figure at right. This is one of several plates in Jazz in which the left and right sides of the plate are juxtaposed as evil versus good.