Antique portrait 1940

Princess Fahrelnissa Zeid made this antique portrait with oil paints. The way she's carved out the form with these bold, dark lines – it’s like she's wrestling with the figure, trying to pin it down. Look at the planes of her face; it’s not about soft blending but more about sharp angles and decisive shapes. It's a process of reduction and simplification and it reminds me of that feeling when you are trying to remember a person or a place. The paint itself seems thinly applied. The colours are muted and earthy, except for this little pop of red. It’s almost as if the artist is trying to pull something out from the background. The way the figure's shoulder is rendered, with this gentle curve and muted tones, brings to mind something of Modigliani. But with Zeid, there's a kind of rawness and a directness that's all her own, wouldn't you say?