Dress c. 1936

Melita Hofmann made this watercolour drawing of a dress; it's undated, so who knows when she made it? It’s so delicate, you can see the weave of the paper underneath the paint. The dress is plain but there are these curious details around the cuffs and hem: bands of warmer colour give the impression of folds of fabric, maybe velvet? Did the artist have a swatch of real fabric she was copying? I like to imagine her standing there, brush in hand, trying to get the precise shape of the puffed sleeves. I get the feeling that the artist and her contemporaries were in an ongoing conversation with one another, taking inspiration and riffing off each other’s ideas. But painting isn't just about representation. It's about feeling, about trying to put a feeling on paper or canvas. It's about embracing the ambiguity and uncertainty of life and Hofmann does exactly that, allowing us to find our own way into her drawing.