Odalisque à la Boulle de Crystal 1920

George Barbier made this piece, “Odalisque à la Boulle de Crystal”, with the intention of making a fan; he achieves this through his application of watercolours. The colours feel almost translucent, layered delicately to create these smooth and soft forms. The marks describe a scene, but the lines feel graphic and abstract at the same time. Consider the way the black background is decorated with gold tendrils, and the smattering of scarab beetles! I’m drawn to how the artist paints the blue orb in the figure's hand. It appears perfectly smooth, like glass, though it’s a painting! The orb is placed in such a way that it draws my eye to the centre, but the gaze of the odalisque is cast away from the viewer, perhaps inviting speculation about the future. Barbier’s art deco style recalls the flatness of Japanese prints, and I can’t help but wonder if he was thinking of artists like Hokusai when making this! Like many artworks, there's a kind of ambiguity here which invites the viewer to project their own interpretation.