Créations de A. Soulié, Mei 1921 1921

This fashion plate, *Créations de A. Soulié, Mei 1921*, was made anonymously using pencil or ink. You can see how the figures have come into being slowly, with the artist going over their lines again and again, each successive stroke solidifying and strengthening their forms. I can imagine the artist creating this piece: bent over a table in their studio, carefully outlining the figures, gently coaxing them into being. What are they thinking as they draw? Are they thinking about line, form, fashion or maybe about money, love, or the future? Look at the line in the skirt of the figure on the right: see how it becomes looser and more gestural as it nears the hem? A quick flick of the wrist. Then compare it to the long, straight lines that make up the background. Aren’t they different ways of thinking? I wonder what the artist was trying to communicate, and who they were in conversation with? Fashion, art, love, and life – all are ongoing conversations that evolve with each brushstroke and observation.