White Camelias 1914

Editor: This is Jean Émile Laboureur’s "White Camelias," an etching from the Harvard Art Museums collection. I'm struck by how modern it feels, almost like a Cubist take on a still life. What’s your interpretation of this work? Curator: It does dance on the edge of abstraction, doesn't it? The flowers are there, but barely contained within those elegant lines. For me, it’s about the tension between representation and pure form. It whispers of hidden structures. Do you sense that too? Editor: I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I see what you mean. There's a scaffolding beneath the blooms. Curator: Precisely! It's as if Laboureur is inviting us to peek behind the curtain, to see the architecture of beauty itself. Makes you wonder what else is hiding in plain sight, eh? Editor: Definitely gives me a fresh perspective!