Très Parisien, 1923, No. 3: Tissus de MEURICE...Reine-des-Prés 1923

This fashion plate of a woman wearing a dress made from Tissus de Maurice was made in Paris, 1923. I love that it looks like the artist drew in the air, conjuring something from nothing. I wonder what it was like to draw this? Did they do it from memory? Did they have a model? I bet they had a model in the studio but also the idea of all the women in Paris, who were all also models, wearing these sorts of dresses. There's a confident, almost hasty quality to the linework, especially in the dress’s floral patterns. The dress itself has a definite shape, but the pattern on it is fluid, like it might move, ripple, or shift like the water. It reminds me a bit of Matisse cutouts, where a few well-placed shapes create a whole world. We all build on each other, you know? I bet there's an art student right now who will look at this and come up with something entirely new. That’s how it goes.