Max Kurzweil - Woman in a Yellow Dress - Iconic portrait of the artists wife Martha sat in her yellow dress - 1899
Lady in Yellow Dress, also known as Woman in a Yellow Dress, is not only one of Kurzweil’s most accomplished portraits of Martha, but it’s also one of his best works. Painted five years after their marriage, the painting shows Martha lounging on a sofa upholstered in a blue-green fabric with botanical motifs. The highlight of the painting, however, is Martha’s yellow dress, all luxurious and radiant. It empowers her figure and her presence, unfurling around her narrow corseted waist like the feathers of a peacock or the wings of a butterfly. The green and blue motifs of the sofa on which she sits further amplify this impression of natural beauty – it’s hard to not be reminded of Claude Monet’s water lilies. With ivory arms splayed across the length of the sofa, Martha’s pose is just as much about the power to be one’s self in the defiant act of occupying space, as much as it is about constriction. For it is the yellow dress that ultimately has the freedom to blossom, while the woman’s arms and overall rigidity allude to a crucifixion. So what at first glance looks like an empowering scene, once we uncover its subtleties it becomes apparent that behind the luxury and beauty, we are witnessing a fragile disposition: it’s in the ennui of her blue, watery eyes, the melancholy of her tilted head, the tight corset that will not let her breathe, the strands of hair falling negligently on her nape. And yet there’s another peculiar detail, with Martha’s feet being hidden from view, as if she were floating or stranded – ungrounded, uprooted. Even so, one cannot deny what a beautiful figure and pose she embodies - artschaft
Size: 4659px × 4666px
Photo credit: © steeve-x-art / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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