Portrait De Simone En Veste Rouge 1986

Hélène de Beauvoir painted ‘Portrait De Simone En Veste Rouge’ with what looks like oil on canvas, though it's hard to say exactly when. The painting has a cool, almost detached feel, and I think that's down to the way de Beauvoir builds up the form with color. It's not about blending; it's more about stacking different shades next to each other. Check out the way the light hits Simone’s face—you can see how de Beauvoir used separate dabs of paint to create the shadows and highlights, each applied with a decisive, confident stroke. And there is something about the brushwork in the red jacket that feels urgent, like she’s trying to capture the energy of the fabric, the weight of it. It's a way of recording the world that is both true to life and deeply felt. You could almost compare it to the Fauvist paintings of Henri Matisse. Both explore how colour can convey emotion, but in De Beauvoir's painting there is a sense of emotional constraint, a quiet intensity. Art is not about perfection, it's about feeling and seeing.