Albert Fourié, French, born Paris, - Cleopatra - 1915 - T-Shirt

A seated woman with long, loosely waved hair bows her head in a dreamy reverie, a coiled serpent resting in the grass beside her among a cluster of roses.

Visual Elements & Composition

The drawing is rendered in red chalk, with feathery strokes building the tones in sanguine red-brown. The cream paper is left open for the highlights, so the light across her shoulder and arm reads as bare sheet. A soft drapery slips from one shoulder, one arm extends outward, and the other hand trails among the roses. The serpent sits at the lower right, close to her bare foot, anchoring the bottom of the composition. Handwritten French inscriptions and the artist's signature sit below the figure, dated 1915.

Meaning & Symbolism

The serpent and roses point to Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen whose story ends with the asp she is said to have used to end her own life. The serpent marks that death and the seductive, dangerous power she was long associated with in European art. The roses carry the wealth of the court and the brevity of its splendour. The languid pose shows her not as a triumphant ruler but as a figure caught in quiet reverie before the inevitable end. Albert Fourié, born in Paris, worked as a painter, draughtsman and illustrator, producing idealised images of women in soft, flowing lines that were widely reproduced in the Belle Époque and after. This sheet belongs to that tradition, and its dedication places it in the early years of the First World War, in exchanges of wartime solidarity between French and American artists.

Wearing the Drawing Across the Chest

A chalk study like this is made to be seen up close, and a tee brings it to the wearer's chest, where the figure reads at conversation distance. The serpent and roses sit low and wide, so the composition lines up naturally with the body of the shirt. The languid, melancholic mood carries from the paper onto the fabric, giving the piece a quiet, reflective presence.