L’étourdissant petit poisson ; Robe d’été 1914

Curator: Oh, I adore this print! This is George Barbier's "L’étourdissant petit poisson; Robe d’été," from 1914. What’s your first impression? Editor: It’s dreamlike, yet melancholy. A poised woman tends to a fantastical aquarium while an androgynous observer peers on. It feels very Edwardian, a society both obsessed with opulence and staring into an abyss. Curator: You nailed it! Barbier's Art Nouveau pieces are dripping with this delicate but ever-so-present awareness. Look at how flat the planes are. Very decorative art, right? And that elegant elongated figure. What’s she thinking, I wonder, staring into the fish bowl? Editor: She's surrounded by a carefully constructed artificial environment—both the aquarium and her own presentation. In 1914, as societal expectations shifted rapidly for women in Europe and globally, presentation was very much key, especially for a woman. And I think we’re supposed to be thinking about artifice. What are women supposed to do? What environments, artificial or not, are they put into? Curator: Absolutely. This feels like a comment on the curated nature of feminine existence, the display. And there's a hint of the surreal, a subtle strangeness that unsettles me. Her stillness. Editor: It is worth pointing out the presence of race here, too. What could an Edwardian ideal woman's world, obsessed as it was with notions of white racial purity, look like as the world barrels head first into total warfare? Barbier's style allows us to see some of those complexities, albeit quietly. Curator: A valid point, one often overlooked in this dazzling surface! Thank you for sharing these perspectives. It makes one want to look more closely and to contextualize Barbier. Editor: The image opens up those vital dialogues; who is allowed the leisurely activity and representation like this, at this historical moment? Curator: Precisely. Art is about creating conversations across time, no?