French school, ca 1900."Portrait of a lady.Mixed media watercolour and pencil on paper.Signed with

French school, ca 1900.
"Portrait of a lady.
Mixed media watercolour and pencil on paper.
Signed with anagram.
Size: 36,5 x 25 cm; 58 x 48 cm (frame).
Work in which the author represents a lady in an elegant pose. The woman directs her gaze beyond the scene, showing us her face in profile, it could be said that she deliberately ignores the spectator. It is an image charged with instantaneity, typical of the female representations of the modernist school of the late 19th century, which prevailed in Europe under different names. This image combines the formal sensuality of the sinuous line, typically modernist, with the great realism with which a strictly contemporary image has been captured. It is a work closely linked to the graphic design of the period; the expressive linearity, the sobriety of the colours and the attention to current themes coincide with the features of posters and illustrations for magazines. It is a dynamic, sensual and schematic drawing, with the theme of the woman at the absolute centre. The female figure was the protagonist of modernism; a modern, high-society woman, young, elegant ladies caught in their leisure moments, reading, strolling or gazing at the viewer, melancholic and tempting.
Moreover, modernism developed at a time when the old traditional techniques were flourishing, especially in the decorative arts. Thus, in glass, ceramics, goldsmithing and other arts, including cabinetmaking, old procedures that had fallen into disuse were recovered and applied according to new criteria, within the new language.