Françoise Pétrovitch - Lorsque la forêt s'éclaircit

Françoise Pétrovitch’s practice oscillates between several worlds. While she often concentrates on the representation of youth, with all the subtleties of line and colour, she seems to unveil a world that is both devoid of violence and yet tightly strung. Each young person appears to be captured in a suspended moment, as if their actual essence, or soul as some may say, were exposed to all. This form of suspended time is also conveyed through her incredible talent as a draftswoman and her devotion for the sensuality of colour.

The panorama she has just created for Bernard Chauveau Publishing and Le Néant Publishing is an exceptional multiple not only by its size (400 x 200 cm), but also by the quality of its realization. Françoise Pétrovitch dived into the long tradition of panoramas that was at its peak in the middle of the nineteenth century. Characters—adolescents—seem to float in a forest haunted by strange animals.

Initially painted in watercolour, this work has been printed on Canson Etching Rag paper 310 gr, scrupulously respecting the infinite details of the original.
The series of animals was then added on as a screen print, in different colours and in different places. Destined to inhabit an interior dwelling, Lorsque la forêt s’éclaircit et retient ses animaux en elle is a rare work in a unique universe.