Woman with a lute

This is a gentle, lyrical picture, perhaps dating from Swanzy's late period. There is a poetic, Chagall-like quality, combined with a certain Cubist tension in drawing. The landscape appears wintry, yet the overall tonality, from the figure to landscape and sky, has a pale pink sweetness. A pretty young woman is seated upon the ground, cradling a lute with elegant fingers. Her child-like features, with red lips and pointed ears, and hair drawn up into a cone, and her surprised or introspective expression, appear in several paintings of young women by Swanzy. A beautiful orange and yellow garment falls from the girl's shoulders. The pale tone of her shoulders is repeated in the bare wintry tree and snowy field, the colour the delicate pale pink of new blossom. Beyond the hill and jagged red rocks is a calm blue sea, and a mysterious island beneath a sky suffused with sweet pink.
J.C.