Mrs. Dwight K. Yerxa as Queen Isabella in the Pageant -Torchbearer 1918

This photograph of Mrs. Dwight K. Yerxa as Queen Isabella was captured by Jessie Tarbox Beals, and you can see it as a study in contrasts. The tonal range has a lovely softness, but the overall effect is sharp and clear. Look at the way Beals balances the soft texture of the dress and the fuzzy edges of the landscape, with the crisp geometry of the headpiece. The pose is stiff, but there's a palpable sense of life and movement that comes from the slight blurring around the dress. It’s like she’s caught between worlds, part historical reenactment and part everyday portraiture. Beals, like Hannah Höch, was working in a medium finding its feet, with a language still in formation, and you feel this in the image. It’s open, unresolved and so, so interesting.