Reverie

The idealized, classically draped figure portrayed here belongs to a serene, harmonious realm of allegory; any sense of the here-and-now is absent. In contrast to the Impressionist painters of modern life, who were beginning to exhibit together around the time this painting was made, Aubert evokes a dream state characterized by temporal stasis and placidity. In the nineteenth century, reverie, or allowing the mind to wander in an undirected, dreamlike fashion, held interest as a contrast to more active states of absorption. The Symbolist painters in particular, who favored works based on fantasy and imagination, were drawn to reverie as an access to the unconscious mind and the deeper truths underlying visible reality.