Lady with Dog 1918

Gerda Wegener made this image of a woman with a dog using delicate lines and a pastel palette. It’s like she’s sketching a feeling, not just a scene. The texture is smooth, almost like it's been printed, but there are variations in the color, so you can tell it’s made by hand. Look at the way the pink of her dress softly blooms, almost as if watercolours were used. There's a looseness in the lines, especially around the edges of the figure that gives it a kind of fleeting quality, like a memory. It reminds me of Matisse. The whole piece has a dreamlike quality, a suggestion of narrative rather than a solid, fixed moment. It really captures Wegener’s interest in ambiguity and the fluidity of identity.