The New Perfume 1914

John William Godward made this oil painting, The New Perfume, sometime around the turn of the last century, and it’s all about subtle plays of light and texture. Look how the paint seems to dissolve into a shimmer, especially in the way the red fabric drapes across the figure, almost like a watercolor. The surface is incredibly smooth, but if you get up close, you can see the tiny brushstrokes, like whispers on the canvas. The texture of the marble table and the woman's skin is so palpable, you can almost feel the coolness of the stone and the softness of her skin. The way the light catches the edges of the jewelry box is especially nice; it’s not just about representation, but about how light transforms the material. Godward reminds me a little of Alma-Tadema, another painter obsessed with antiquity, but with a touch more intimacy. It’s this embrace of ambiguity that makes it so compelling, a space where seeing becomes a kind of thinking.