Dress c. 1938

Jean Peszel made this watercolour on paper rendering of a dress, but we don't know exactly when. The pale green almost glows. The representation is like a ghost of fashion, an echo. I imagine Peszel layering these thin washes, building volume and subtle shading. The way the dress puffs out! You can almost feel the crinoline. And those little bows and ruffles...It's like a garden of ornamentation. I can imagine Peszel carefully plotting the geometry of the dress, but at the same time allowing for a certain fluidity. The back sketch feels more tentative, a try-out, a beginning. Dress, like many paintings, offers an invitation to look closely, to consider what surfaces might conceal and reveal. It reminds me that every artist is in conversation with those who came before, borrowing, responding, and transforming ideas across time. And that's how art keeps going, through all of us.