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 have a distinctive aesthetic that is common to all of them. Always 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. Usually wearing sophisticated hats that sometimes cast a shadow over their eyes, Madge Gill's oval faces are distinguished by the softness and regularity of their contours and by their large eyes, often rimmed in black, which give them a very strong, almost intimidating evocative power. "It's the eyes that interest the artist most, making 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 the eyelashes and eyebrows in small, careful strokes and reinforcing the edges of the eye with black," analyses Roger Cardinal." Marie-Hélène Jeanneret, Madge Gill, éditions Ides et Calendes, Lausanne, 2017, p. 45.