La Belle Dam Sans Merci 1924

Frank Cadogan Cowper made this painting, La Belle Dam Sans Merci, using oils, and wow, does it ever stop you in your tracks. The color is gorgeous, and there are interesting, theatrical decisions being made here. Look at the way he’s worked the paint in that dress. It feels thin and controlled, a real contrast to the more luscious handling of the landscape in the background. I find myself wondering about the choice of using a kind of pre-Raphaelite visual language. This almost academic, polished handling of the medium gives it such a different feel. I keep coming back to the dress and those motifs, like a repeating wallpaper pattern, laid on top. It’s a moment of flatness that pulls you up short. Someone like Klimt also uses this kind of flatness. Both artists knew how to make a painting that can hold multiple ideas at once. It's like they're saying, "I can do this, but I can also do this," embracing all the possibilities of the medium.