Girl in a Polka-Dot Dress Sewing — Henri Lebasque Postcard

Sewing is one of Lebasque's signature subjects — partly because his household revolved around it, partly because it gave him a still figure, good light, and an excuse to work in close registers of pink, white, and warm shadow. The painting joins a long European tradition of domestic interiors that runs from Vermeer and Chardin through to Vuillard, restated here in the gentler key of the early twentieth century. Sent as a postcard, it carries an almost confessional quietness, and pairs naturally with other intimate scenes in an art postcard collection.