Women and their wings: Art and my feelings
- Kenny Isibor
- Jul 14
- 2 min read
Style: Art Nouveau
Date: 1917-1918
Title: Lady with a Fan
Artist: Gustav Klimt
Music I listened to while typing this:
I’m a lover of women in art.
Any painting done by or featuring a woman will always mesmerize me like a moth to a flame. The softly seductive yet graciously strong motif created by feminine energy seems to be made for the canvas. The essence of artistry and spirituality is inherently feminine.
With this in mind, I scrolled through the Daily Art app to find some inspiration and stumbled upon the painting "Water Castle" by Gustav Klimt. Though I am not a big fan of landscape paintings, I found the painting to be oddly seductive, so I settled on looking at more of Gustav’s work.
“Lady With a Fan”- Gustav Klimt
Like love at first sight, I was immediately drawn to this painting. Who is this woman, and what is her story? Where is she looking? How did Gustav feel about her when he painted this portrait of her?
Instead of a beautiful yet stereotypical Renaissance portrait, he captures her essence through a stylistic rendering featuring flowers and various types of winged animals. It makes me wonder if she just liked these animals, or if they symbolized her desire for more freedom in her personal life.
Finding empowerment through grace, empathy, and understanding
The lady with the fan holds herself in a dignified, gracious, and regal way that captivates and commands attention in a way so subtle some may almost miss it. Her quiet strength and elegant expression carry this painting and draw your eye to her outward-facing stare.
This painting inspires me, but also makes me feel melancholic. In a world where feminine qualities such as elegance, grace, and wisdom are cast aside and are seen as “boring or non-essential”, this painting from 1917 feels like a breath of fresh air.
As time passes, I notice an increase in qualities such as arrogance, dominance, bullying, and garishness in modern society. The understanding and compassionate approach is erased, and an “I take what I want and I don’t care who it hurts” and “dog-eat-dog” approach predominates.
My goal is not to preach or tell anyone how they need to live. Rather, I’m taking an observatory stance on the issue and trying to view it with as much detachment as possible. And from this detached perspective, I see a world filled with people projecting their problems onto others instead of dealing with their hurt. People who bully, intimidate, dominate, and humiliate to “feel” empowered. But that is not true empowerment.
To me, true power is knowing your strength and choosing when, how, and where you will use it. It’s having the wisdom to know if something is even worth a response from you, or if it’s so far beneath you, it’s not even worth addressing.
And like the Lady with a Fan, I turn my gaze outwards, crack a soft smile, and continue my journey.
-Kenny
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