Baby
with Blue Cap
circa 1911
With its eyes
slightly enlarged and its posture a bit too straight, Wouters is able to
animate a two-dimensional pastel portrait with a touch of real childish
'bounce'. Clouded in a puffy garment of light pinks and many blues, topped with
an over-sized blue-bell knit hat and anchored to the spot in front of a wave of
quivering wallpaper the child sits attentively. Like a flower stalk its feeds
off of the sunlight; off of whatever is the most interesting thing in the room.
It cranes its head here and there, stopping at this point to observe whatever
muse the artist placed to its left to keep it transfixed for a long enough
time. We can see the hasty stick-work, the spots where Wouters scrubbed the raw
chunk of pastel (or pigmented chalk?) onto the canvas, leaving a rough
rectangular imprint to make up for the child's creased sleeve or pattern, or
for its little hands and chin.
It is interesting to think that their
roles - that of the artist and of the sitter - are reversed in this situation.
Babies are often erratic and tempermental but in this case, while the child was
caught in a moment of stillness, it was actually Wouters who was apparently
stung by a burst of energy. His hand work varies dramatically across the
portrait (compare the rough blue backdrop to the baby's flesh) and in some
areas he even neglected to finish details. His attention, like the baby's, was
clearly drawn to one point. For both it was a moment of interest, but it is
probably for only one that this moment was remembered later in life.
