Portrait of a Girl, Red Bandeau 1912

Curator: Let’s turn our attention to Samuel Peploe’s "Portrait of a Girl, Red Bandeau," painted around 1912. The Post-Impressionist work renders its subject with striking simplicity. What's your initial reaction? Editor: There’s something immediately captivating about the direct gaze of the girl. It's simple, almost like a paper doll come to life, but the colors sing! It has the feel of looking back across time, as if she is peering through from a dream. Curator: Precisely! Peploe captures a sense of modernity using quite traditional methods. Notice how he builds up layers of oil paint, creating a tactile, almost sculptural surface? This impasto technique gives life to her figure. Editor: You can almost feel the brushstrokes dancing! The blocks of color really give the picture such personality, although one might be hard-pressed to pick her out in a crowd; but, by all accounts, what a striking spirit! The way he hints at shadow with green is so telling. Curator: And how the bright orange of the bandeau is echoed subtly throughout the portrait. It almost appears as a symbolic headscarf that hints toward wisdom. Red is for knowledge. The overall composition feels almost Fauvist with its audacious use of color and rejection of naturalism. Editor: You've given me more to consider. I see something very elemental here. It brings me back to being a child: it holds such a feeling. I love the tension he creates between that rawness and a studied composition. The portrait really sits between two spaces of awareness; what a mystery and treasure. Curator: Ultimately, it encapsulates the way the artist brings form and colour into balance and helps viewers find themselves amidst modernity and simplicity. Editor: Agreed; with her steady gaze, this wonderful subject lets you fall into her inner and outer space. It asks for curiosity, it asks questions, and it feels as good as seeing art should.