Ontwerp voor een hanger met een slapend vrouwenhoofd en papavers, van geëmailleerd goud c. 1905

Paul Louchet made this design for a pendant with a sleeping woman's head and poppies, rendered in enameled gold, using pencil and watercolour. The drawing is very light, tentative almost, but Louchet is clear in his intention; the colours are muted, but precise. Look at the way that Louchet allows the gold to bleed into the blue highlights of the crescent; it's suggestive of moonlight, mystery, and dreams. I love how the sinuous lines of the hair mirror the curves of the pendant’s frame. The details in the face are exquisite, so serene, so still. Louchet plays with transparency, letting the bare paper breathe through the washes of colour, giving the piece an ethereal quality. It's a study in capturing something fleeting; the way we slip into unconsciousness. There is a softness here that recalls the work of Odilon Redon, both artists understood how to capture the ineffable quality of dreams. Art, after all, is an invitation to dream together.