Minhuit … ou l’appartement a la mode 1920

This is George Barbier's 'Minhuit...ou l'appartement a la mode', from the 1920s, I imagine made with ink and watercolour. It's like a stage set with this young woman centre stage, all powdered and flouncy. Barbier wasn’t afraid to embrace decoration, but it’s a disciplined sort of decoration. Everything is finely drawn. Look at the tiny marks that make up the looping tendrils around the figure, like a delicate spider’s web. And there is a muted quality to the tones, dusty pinks and oranges, which gives the image a kind of dreamlike quality. The composition creates a sense of a self-contained world, full of objects and textures – the patterned cushions, the reflective mirror, the butterfly, the dog, each rendered in exquisite detail. It reminds me a little of Charles Demuth, the way he combined a decorative sensibility with almost cartoonish figuration. Both artists manage to create very controlled and theatrical compositions which capture the spirit of the time. The space in the picture feels poised between seriousness and frivolity, pleasure and melancholia. It's full of contradictions.