From the illustration description in Son of Prometheus:
Following on from Kaloprosopia 1, this illustration goes with Comment on devient fée and reflects themes in Chapters 7 and 8. It depicts a typical socialite of Péladan’s time; the reader for whom he wrote the book and passages that earned him unjust accusations of misogyny. Yet he was thinking of the beautiful, corseted, bored, and trapped young women of his day. Behind her, primeval, dark femininity howls in despair. She is chained to a dressmaker’s dummy, a symbol of her existence, but also a blank canvas on which she can exercise her own form of kaloprosopia – painting her freedom on her prison walls. Once again, the snakes are reflections of the primeval power of the Medusa, they are guardians, guides, but may also be treacherous.
This also references the novel Istar again, in which the heroine is a fallen angel obliged to live as a human woman married to an oaf. Her story reflects the fate of women as Péladan perceived it. The words around the border, from Comment on devient fée, are one of the inspirations for this piece, the other is from Istar:
“If virtue consists in resistance, women are greater than us…. From boarding school where spontaneity is reprimanded, to the salon where again, games of wordplay and double meanigns are forbidden to her, the modern woman obeys negative commandments. To wait, to refuse, to retreat and to be silent, there is the entire expected behavious: and society which is more selfish than anyone, because it is made of general selfishness, overwrites the individualism of souls as if with a state decree.”
Available in 4 highly limited Editions:
1 Original pen and ink freehand illustration in black and white by Sasha Chaitow on Saunders Waterford rough Watercolour paper, 31×41 cm as reprinted in Son of Prometheus: The Life and Work of Joséphin Péladan; Sigilized by the artist.
Only 1 print fully hand-colored in antique, drawing, and calligraphy inks by Sasha Chaitow on smooth watercolour paper, c.30×42 cm. Signed, numbered*, dated by the artist.
Only 1 print dichromatically hand-colored (red + gold) in antique, drawing, and calligraphy inks by Sasha Chaitow on smooth watercolour paper, c.30×42 cm. Signed, numbered*, dated by the artist.
3 black and white prints on smooth watercolour paper, c.30×42 cm. Signed, numbered*, dated by the artist.
* numbered as part of one of seven print sets, i.e. 3/7, 4/7, 5/7 (black and white), 6/7 (diachromatic) or 7/7 (fully colored). Print sets 1 and 2 are privately owned and currently not for sale.
