This mixed-media watercolor is related to the Girl with Umbrella from 1911 featured on our André Evard site. In contrast to that watercolor, the clouds here are clearly defined and the background trees are more detailed. This also serves as an example of Evard’s working method, where he attempts to explore the same subject from various angles.
The figure seen from behind has been consistently employed since antiquity to convey depth within a two-dimensional pictorial plane. Its indistinct face lends itself to ambiguity, which is why it was often adopted by René Magritte as a pictorial subject in Surrealism. The most famous figure seen from behind in art history is arguably Caspar David Friedrich’s “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog”.