Oil on Kraft paper, 200 × 100 cm

Created in a single 40-minute session, this portrait of Pascal stands as a testament to a time of deep personal transformation for Fangyou Belleli. Returning to Beaux-Arts after eleven months of caring for her ailing father in China, the artist painted with a brush weighted by raw emotion and light.

In this work, flesh and paint become one, the density of the strokes conveying both the weight of the body and the gravity of feeling. The blue-grey background, where Pascal sits upon a white towel, was likened by fellow artists to the atmosphere of Monet’s snow-covered landscapes. Yet beneath this chromatic serenity lies a quiet pain—the inability to accept the inevitable loss of a loved one.

The solemnity of the colors, the weight of the brushwork, and the restrained tension in Pascal’s posture reflect this inner struggle. In this suspended moment, Fangyou Belleli captures not only the presence of the model but also her own—between holding on and letting go, between shadow and light.