Très Parisien, 1923, No. 3: TISSUS DE RODIER / AU PRINTEMPS... 1923

This fashion plate, titled "Très Parisien, 1923," probably made with some kind of printmaking technique, is a light and airy depiction of spring fashion. The palette is very restrained, it's all soft pastels, muted greens, cream and black. Look at how the flat planes of color are laid down to create depth and form. The figure, an elegant woman in her flapper attire, seems almost pasted onto the background, which suggests a kind of constructed reality, a stylized vision of the world. The lines defining her skirt are thin and precise, in contrast to the more free-form shapes of the trees behind her. There’s a tension between the geometric and the organic, a very modern kind of contrast. The way this contrasts with the slightly more expressive brushwork in the trees behind, reminds me of similar tensions in the work of someone like Matisse. But what's interesting here is how it flattens into something more decorative.