Rose Favre

ROSE FAVRE (France, late 19th century).
"Europeans dressed in the oriental manner", ca.1910.
Pair of oil paintings on board.
Signed on the lower part.
Measurements: 144 x 55 cm; 152 x 64 cm (frames).

Singular pair of large portraits made by Rose Favre around 1910, representing a couple of Europeans dressed in luxurious costumes of oriental inspiration. The technical exquisiteness is allied with the playful playful intention. The fashion for japonism and orientalism, which had been imposed in Europe since the 1870s, also reached the portrait genre: intellectuals, artists and members of the cultural elite had themselves portrayed as Chinese or Japanese nobles, in a game of identity and exoticism that combined modernity and fascination for distant cultures.

In the male portrait, the protagonist wears a lavish dragon robe, a ceremonial garment of imperial China richly embroidered with dragons, a symbol of power and high hierarchy. The female figure, on the other hand, appears with a carefully crafted hairstyle and wears a sumptuous robe with extensive embroidery, reinforcing the image of sophistication and exoticism. Favre succeeds in capturing both the irony and fascination inherent in this type of ingenious portraiture.