10 Dec 1921
10 Dec 1921
10 December 1921
Chalet des Sapins, Montana-sur-Sierre, Switzerland
Now we come to Marie Loo. I have read and reread the description so that I see it as near as I can. It sounds wonderfully attractive. The truth is I really don't know quite what you are after. I don't understand. There is Marie Loo in her own little world under her own parasol. Thats your idea - isn't it? But the painting of the figure worries me - especially the legs. Shes too much like a flat cardboard figure. I have looked at her legs and I cant see her naked. Perhaps you will say - what on earth has this to do with it? Let her legs be flat. But there's the head. You have painted the head as though it were a round object i.e. to me - the head is in one style and the rest of the body (except the hand holding the doll) in another. It seems to me your whole difficulty is technique. The feeling is there, the imagination & the colour but you cant yet express what you feel and see. Your tools are not good enough - your hands. And I also think you are a bit over anxious; you are trying too hard. What I mean is you are attempting in Marie Loo something that for the moment is beyond you. Its no good doing anything that is not just a little too difficult for us - thats a most profound truth, I think - but on the other hand we have to judge the degree of difficulty. And thats not easy. [To Dorothy Brett, 11 December 1921.]