Cheminotes

ln this painting, Giulia Andreani plays with the characteristics of propaganda images to evoke the women who were active on the front during the Great War.

Three women with slightly blurred faces, as if disguised in their costumes borrowed from men, pose for posterity. The very strangeness of the figures is puzzling. The artist paints in Payne's grey- a shade traditionally reserved for depicting shadows. The evanescent construction of the work reflects the choice of subject. ln a manner that is bath cruel and derisive, the monumental dimensions of the canvas are reminiscent of the monuments to the dead that were erected in French public squares after the First World War.