Art - Goût - Beauté, Feuillets de l' élégance féminine, Mai 1929, No. 105, 9e Année, p. 14 1929

This magazine illustration, Art - Goût - Beauté, Feuillets de l' élégance féminine, was made in Paris in 1929 and features the delicate stylings of the era. The first thing I notice is the treatment of colour; soft pinks and yellows overlaying the black text, the printing process itself creates a kind of painterly effect. It’s interesting how the figures are presented, one looking directly at us, and the other reflected. You might think of the mirrored woman as a kind of doppelganger, or a premonition. The two figures, or rather the two images of the same figure, are bound together by the mirroring ellipse of the mirror, which is only very lightly sketched, giving a ghost-like quality. The gentle hatching and restrained use of line feels reminiscent of Matisse's line drawings from the period, but here the artist is using the language of commercial illustration to talk about beauty, and, ultimately, commerce.