Aux Trois Quartiers Paris, Les Modes d'Hiver 6 Octobre 1913 1913

This is a Parisian fashion advertisement from 1913, made by Paul Méras. Look how Méras uses a limited palette of black, gray and peach to create a suite of elegant women in the height of winter fashion. The simple colours really highlight the forms, and the way the artist has embraced the flat, graphic nature of printmaking is really interesting. The stark lines and simplified shapes are so evocative of the era. Notice how the black ink bleeds slightly around the edges, giving the image a slightly fuzzy, dreamlike quality. It’s like looking at a faded photograph, a snapshot of a bygone era. I love the way the artist leaves parts of the image unfinished, allowing the underlying paper to show through. For me, this piece recalls the work of artists like Charles Gesmar, who understood how to blend commerce with artistic expression. There's something about the simplicity and directness of this image that feels so modern, even now. It reminds me that art is always in conversation with the past, reinterpreting and reimagining what came before.