Psyché ; Robe du soir, de Worth 1921

George Barbier created this pochoir print, Psyché; Robe du soir, de Worth, sometime in the early 20th century. With it’s careful stenciled application of colors, you get a real sense of the artifice of fashion, the construction of an image, layer by layer. Just look at the way the soft lilac background meets the green of the grassy verge and how the column has been built up through an accumulation of straight lines. It makes you think about the work that goes into the image, and how the fashion industry is built on many unseen hands. That lamp she is holding up, with the little flame, it makes me think about the artist Kees van Dongen. Van Dongen was another artist, like Barbier, who understood the power of artifice and fashion, but he used thick paint, not stencils, to get there. Maybe both artists are pointing to something similar, even if their mark making processes were totally different.