Anna May Wong c. 1927

Alice Pike Barney made this pastel drawing of Anna May Wong, and what strikes me is the softness of the medium, the way pastel allows for these blurry edges, like a memory half-formed. Look at the surface, it's almost like she's breathing, the way the colors blend and bleed into each other. Barney doesn’t seem too concerned with capturing a perfect likeness but something about Wong's essence. The powdery texture of the pastel feels intimate, immediate, like a fleeting moment captured on paper. Then there's the background, those little dragonfly shapes feel like wallpaper or maybe just an added flourish of whimsy, a reminder that art can be playful, decorative, and profound all at once. You know, it puts me in mind of Whistler, that interest in capturing fleeting effects and a sense of atmosphere. Art's a conversation, right?