Portrait of Alexandra of Denmark 

Curator: This is Édouard De Bièfve's portrait of Alexandra of Denmark, rendered in oil paint. What’s your take on it? Editor: Immediately, the luminosity strikes me. She’s bathed in a soft, ethereal light. Her gaze carries a pensiveness, a sort of dreamy quality…it is all beautifully done with oil on canvas, I think, Curator: Exactly! Her serene composure feels studied. We can trace it back to Academic Art principles. But, for me, this is really interesting when it comes to analyzing materiality. Looking at the smoothness and the layering in the painting, you see the artist’s intense labor but at the same time this technique served to mask its own making and the hierarchy between fine art and labor that goes with it...What do you think? Editor: Absolutely, the execution feels almost idealized, doesn't it? One can also wonder where and how he got hold of that kind of pearl she is carrying. Perhaps she acquired them as sign of her growing status as future queen? Also, note the way the oil paint, as you've described, makes her skin appear almost porcelain-like and the way she is posed; to look and to be looked at..She is conscious of her performance here and her gender too Curator: Precisely! De Bièfve captures that regal essence, but almost transcends the limitations of traditional portraiture and Romanticism, the smoothness adds this idealized state… It’s fascinating how the physical manipulation of materials – paint, brush, canvas – shapes and perhaps distorts our understanding of power and representation of this lady. Editor: I concur. It leaves you reflecting on both Alexandra as a subject and on the processes and the kind of power she and the author perform. Thank you. Curator: Indeed. Thank you too!