L’amant poète. ; Écosse XIXe siècle 1923

This is George Barbier's "L’amant poète," an illustration from 1922, likely made with watercolor and ink. It whispers to me about romance and poetry, all set against the backdrop of the Scottish highlands. I imagine Barbier hunched over his drawing board, carefully mixing his inks to get that perfect shade of melancholic gray for the tombstone. What was he thinking about as he rendered the plaid kilt of our brooding poet? I wonder what he’s writing about. Maybe he's struggling with writer's block, staring wistfully at the woman who is spying on him, trying to find inspiration in her beauty. The texture of the paper gives the colors a slightly muted quality, like a memory fading with time. The controlled lines and flat planes of color give a sense of artifice, almost theatrical. The inscription "Et in Arcadia ego" reminds us that even in paradise, death is present. But Barbier's playful rendering makes death seem more like a stylish accessory than a grim reality. Artists are always talking to one another across time, riffing on old themes, reinventing them with new eyes. Barbier certainly knew his history, adding his own witty spin. Each stroke of the brush or pen is a conversation, a way of making sense of the world, one line at a time.