In Gallen-Kallela's piece, the "tragic spirit" is embodied in an achingly thin woman, whose cosmetics have run down her face in a near mockery of the harlequin.
My work here, "Démasquée I: Burden," contemporizes the piece for this fin de siecle, presenting not loss of the "bohemian" escapist trappings of "propriety," but the naked burdens of simple existence, alone.
"Démasquée 1"
I modeled this image on Akseli Gallen-Kallela's "Démasquée,"painted in Paris in 1888. Gallen Kallela's "Démasquée (Unmasked)" shows a Parisian model sitting on a Finnish ryijy weave with what has been described by critics as a a "fin-de-siecle expression of playful exhaustion and nervous vividness." The pose itself has been interpreted as "presenting the moment when the masks of propriety have been removed, leaving only naked existence," and the painting is said to "capture the underlying tragic spirit of the bohemian lifestyle."
Original Graphic © 1998 by Emmanuela Copal de Léon
Emmanuela's Links to Online Erotica
Tribal Galleria Home Page
Please respect the copyright laws that pertain to the use of Internet works. Do not download or any any other way reproduce this image without permission from the author. Contact STANDARDS at the link below for additional information.