Femme Assise c. 1917

María Blanchard's "Femme Assise" is a painted portrait, but it's also a world being built, colour by colour, form by form. I imagine Blanchard standing before the canvas, brush in hand, navigating the complex geometry of feeling and form. The painting's surface becomes a site of inquiry, each stroke a question, each color a possible answer. What does it mean to see? What does it mean to be seen? The floral patterns speak of domesticity, warmth, tenderness—juxtaposed with those strong, architectural planes. The color is applied in such a way as to really make you feel the painting, think about its materiality, its weight. "Femme Assise" is a record of a journey. Painters are always having this conversation with each other across time, riffing and building on what's come before. Ultimately, Blanchard invites us to embrace ambiguity, to find meaning not in fixed interpretations, but in the fluid exchange between artist, artwork, and viewer.