Portrait de Femme 

Curator: Standing before us, we see "Portrait de Femme," a pencil and pastel drawing attributed to Tsuguharu Foujita. The date is unknown, which makes its cultural context more open to interpretation. What strikes you first about this piece? Editor: It has a kind of ghostly, melancholic aura, doesn’t it? The colors are muted, and there’s a soft focus that blurs the lines slightly. She seems trapped in a dream. Curator: Dreams can often reveal cultural memory and symbolism. Roses, like the one pinned to the woman's chest, have, since antiquity, embodied ideas of beauty, love, and often, transience. But look at how lightly the artist sketches the petals. Does it denote fleeting beauty here? Editor: It does look like its on the verge of falling off. It certainly mirrors the aesthetic sensibilities prevalent in Romanticism, and how it glorified suffering and the sublime power of nature. I see a woman presented for our aesthetic consideration in terms of beauty but it is more about feeling a mood that transcends a representation of beauty. Curator: Exactly. Notice, too, the tilt of her head and the way she doesn't quite meet the viewer’s gaze. She's introverted, self-aware. Her hand delicately resting on her chest – is it protection, revelation, a symbol of inner conflict? It would seem she’s less an individual and more a sign. Editor: Or is it an acceptance? Looking back to Romantic ideals, art and artist becomes cultural signs, where they are elevated and celebrated as geniuses who give shape to an era's emotions, that’s the position Foujita is emulating here. It can also simply indicate, institutionally speaking, the sitter comes from the elite in society or who tries to. Curator: Yes, it points to the ongoing evolution of our understanding and how each generation interprets the weight of certain poses, subjects and materials. Editor: Thinking about the role and reception of this drawing brings its many layers. This ghostly woman makes one contemplate the long afterlife of this era of romantic portraits. Curator: Foujita has woven together emotion and the power of symbols to capture our interest in this face through all these years.