Evening Dress and Cape c. 1936

Dorothy Gernon designed this evening dress and cape using gouache and graphite on paper. The gouache sits on the surface, opaque, which is funny given the subject matter: the fantasy and illusion of dressmaking. The marks are small and tight, little commas of yellow that give the dress volume. Like a Seurat painting, but in reverse. Instead of lots of colours adding up to one, it's one tone made of many marks, which makes it feel kind of 'handmade', if you know what I mean? The pattern makes me think of the kind of fancy paper you get to line drawers or shelves. What I like most is the addition of the floating dress shape to the right of the main image, a ghost outline; a shadow; a thought bubble about the back of the dress? It's the kind of addition that makes the work, for me. And which links it to other artists, like Bonnard or Vuillard, who use pattern and colour to flatten space and disrupt form.