Punch's Sweatheart c. 1938

Elmer Weise created Punch's Sweetheart, using watercolor to depict a figure that dances on the edge of playful and peculiar. The beauty of this piece lies in its raw expressiveness. Look at the way Weise layers the colors on her face, the reds and pinks that give her cheeks a kind of urgent flush. It's not so much about accurate representation as it is about feeling. I wonder if Weise used thin brushes to apply the thin layer of colours. And that dress! It's all about texture and pattern, a swirling mix of blues and reds that both conceals and reveals the form beneath. Weise is playing with how we see, pushing and pulling us between the surface details and the underlying structure. It reminds me of Redon, the way he used color to evoke emotion and dreamlike states, embracing the power of suggestion rather than the precision of reality. It all feels so alive, so wonderfully unresolved.