Le Moniteur de la Mode, 6 Octobre 1906, Nr. 4530, No. 40 1906

This fashion plate, Le Moniteur de la Mode, was made in Paris in October 1906. The lithograph is anonymous, so we can imagine a team of skilled, anonymous artists diligently at work in the studio. I see a cascade of long, elegant dresses, soft pastels, and those fabulous, enormous hats. What was it like to produce an image like this? I imagine the artists carefully mixing inks, then meticulously layering colors to achieve those delicate hues and subtle shading effects. I can sense the weight of the lithographic stone, the precision required to transfer the design onto paper. Those lines have got to be copperplate, so precise. There is a certain elegance in the way the colors blend, a delicacy that makes me think of the soft, filtered light of a Parisian afternoon. It's a reminder that art, in all its forms, is a conversation across time. We painters are constantly responding to and riffing off of what has come before, finding new ways to express ourselves within a rich, ever-evolving tradition.