Très Parisien, 1923, No 5: 18.-MONIQUE. - 1. Robe en "Moire Autique"... 1923

This 1923 pochoir print, "Très Parisien, No 5", by J. Dory, is like a whisper from another time. Look at the paper, almost antique, and the gentle way the colours have been laid down. It feels delicate, as if the artist tiptoed around the page. I’m really drawn to the figure in the dress; a peachy pink number, caught in a perpetual twist. It’s interesting how the flat color creates the shape, and then the darker lines give it that zing, that sense of movement, that “Oh, I'm just off to a party!” vibe. I wonder if the artist felt that sense of forward motion when they made it? And the other figure; those swirls and eddies of brown ink, like she's made of coffee and chocolate! The whole image feels like a conversation between line and colour, between flatness and form. Like the work of Erté, it feels so evocative of its time. It reminds us that art is always a dialogue, across time, across styles, and across our own imaginations.