Ontwerp voor een menukaart met een vrouw met gespreide armen 1884 - 1952

This is a design for a menu card with watercolour and pencil by Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries. The image shows a woman with open arms, incorporated into the word ‘menu,’ an art nouveau motif. I can imagine him, at his desk, quietly sketching. There is something very graceful and stylized in the way that the woman's arms merge with the letters. I bet he was thinking hard about the role of women in public life and maybe he believed women have a place everywhere, even on a menu! The palette is soft, elegant. The blue of her dress and the golden details are beautifully understated, creating a harmonious balance. The Art Nouveau period was a time of great change in Europe, and artists were keen to embrace new techniques. De Vries seems to be part of this exciting cultural shift, where every object could be a site of artistic expression. How fabulous is that?