Le Pèlerin du ‘Dieu bleu’ 1917

Léon Bakst made ‘Le Pèlerin du ‘Dieu bleu’’ as a watercolor, and what grabs me right away is how he builds the figure out of patterns. Look at the robe – it's a field of white circles, each ringed with olive green and punctuated with a spot of red. It reminds me of some kinda Op Art. There’s a flatness to the image, yet it feels alive. It’s like he’s interested in decoration as much as representation. I love how Bakst uses simple shapes to create a sense of depth and movement. The figure strides confidently, but the patterning on the clothes pushes it into a field of abstraction. The green triangles on the trousers, for example, become a playful dance of form, mimicking the larger circles of the robe. For me it brings to mind the later work of someone like Matisse. These artists share an interest in color and pattern and how they might transform a representational image into something more decorative, and more emotionally resonant. Isn’t it interesting how paintings can become conversations across time and space?