Art - Goût - Beauté, Feuillets de l' élégance féminine, Juin 1932, No. 142, 12e Année, p. 11 1932

R. Drivon made this illustration for a fashion magazine in Paris in 1932. The image is cool and aloof, all muted greys and browns, sharply angled, and a little detached. I imagine Drivon at the drawing board, peering intently, capturing the essence of each silhouetted figure with just a few strokes of the pen. Each confident line creates and defines the scene. The stripes on the top right figure, for example, have been beautifully rendered, to give an impression of depth, perspective and style. The whole thing is ever so slightly out of kilter. The figures seem self-conscious, lost in their own little world. There’s a tension between graphic design, the fashion world, and the wider art movement. It reminds me a little of Erté, or maybe even Lempicka. Drivon is having a conversation with his peers, and so too am I, almost a century later. We learn from, and lean on, each other. It’s this shared experience that makes art so compelling.