MADGE GILL (England, 1882-1961) TWO WOMEN Ink... Lot 30

MADGE GILL (England, 1882-1961) TWO WOMEN Ink on fabric Ink on fabric 22 X 31 CM - 8 5/8 X 12 1/4 IN. For Madge Gill, the human figure is the common thread that runs through all her work. Like a haunting leitmotif, the portraits she draws respond to a very particular aesthetic that is common to them all. Systematically depicted from the front, the women she offers us to see are almost always young and elegant, and seem to have been apprehended for a tryst, a religious ceremony or a social evening. Most often wearing sophisticated hats that sometimes cast a shadow over their eyes, Madge Gill's oval faces are distinguished by their soft, regular contours and large, often black-rimmed eyes, which lend them a vigorous, almost intimidating evocative power. "It's the eyes that interest the artist, who makes them large and pleading. Sometimes she sketches them a little crudely, in a hurry to finish her work; but very often she lingers to detail them, adding eyelashes and eyebrows in small, careful strokes, reinforcing the edges of the eye with black", analyzes Roger Cardinal." Marie-Hélène Jeanneret, Madge Gill, éditions Ides et Calendes, Lausanne, 2017, p. 45.