Très Parisien, 1925, No. 9, Pl. 6.- HERIODIADE 1925

This fashion plate titled 'Très Parisien' was made in 1925 by G-P. Joumard. It feels like a blueprint, a moment caught in time. The colours have that beautiful, muted quality of early printing, those soft pinks and blues. The way the image is constructed with flat planes, it’s like the artist is making a statement about the essence of form, not so much the surface details. I like how the soft rendering gives way to the sharp line of the illustration. It’s a dialogue between styles, just like the mix of abstraction and figuration you see in so much painting today. Look at the edges of the garment, how the artist is defining the form with just a few strokes! You can see this in the treatment of the ruffles. It is so minimal, but it completely conveys the image of the garment, in all its billowing, floral glory. The dialogue between line and form gives it a powerful graphic quality. You can see the influence of artists like Matisse and Picasso in Joumard’s approach. It's a reminder that art is always in conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas across time.