Le Ruban Rose

Le Ruban Rose comes from Candida Romero’s Little Girls series, a remarkable body of approximately one hundred paintings created between 2003 and 2008. The series originated from a collection of anonymous late Victorian photographs assembled by Pierre-Jean Rémy, the French novelist, diplomat, literary figure, and member of the Académie française. Almost all of the children in these photographs remain unnamed. Their families have been forgotten, their histories dissolved, and what survives are only their faces, gestures, clothing, and expressions, suspended outside biography.

It was precisely this silence surrounding each child that fascinated Rémy and Romero. The original photographs were small nineteenth-century keepsakes, softened by time, with sepia tones, worn edges, and surfaces gently marked by generations of handling. Rather than attempting to recover the factual lives of the girls, Rémy imagined new ones, writing fictional texts that restored a sense of identity, personality, and destiny to children history had left anonymous.

Romero then transformed these photographs and literary fragments into independent pictorial worlds. Her paintings are not illustrations of Rémy’s texts; they are layered acts of reinvention. Across the series, she worked with photography, silkscreen, gesso, acrylic, oil, ink, and, in certain works, antique textiles, lace, paper, and other historical materials. The diversity of materials mirrors the diversity of the imagined narratives themselves, with each painting developing its own atmosphere, surface, and emotional register. The completed series was exhibited in a solo presentation at the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa in Paris.

In Le Ruban Rose, meaning “The Pink Ribbon,” Romero creates one of the series’ most spirited and visually layered compositions. A young girl appears from within the original photographic image, surrounded by expressive pink ribbons, circular forms, handwritten marks, and painterly gestures. The work preserves the haunting delicacy of the antique portrait while allowing the surface around it to become animated, modern, and almost musical.

What makes the piece so compelling is the way Romero allows the past and present to exist together. The aged tones of the photograph, with their soft purples, golds, grays, and blacks, give the work a sense of history and patina. Against that, the bold pink paint feels fresh, playful, and unexpected. The contrast does not feel forced. It feels alive, as if the child’s forgotten image has been reawakened through color, movement, and imagination.

I chose Le Ruban Rose for the Kara Childress Collection because of this unique blend of antique and modern materials. I am especially drawn to the almost purple and gold aging of the photograph, which feels so delicate, and the way Romero pairs it with the boldness of the pink painted ribbon. There is something wonderful about that tension. The historical image remains intact, even with its original markings and details near the bottom, but Romero gives it an entirely new life through her additions.

In my own design work, I am always drawn to pieces that create conversation in a room. Le Ruban Rose does that beautifully. It has the romance and mystery of an antique photograph, but also the freshness and energy of a contemporary painting. The pink gestures bring a sense of movement and joy, while the darker ground gives the piece depth and sophistication.

I have admired Candida Romero’s work for years, and this piece captures two qualities I love in a home: timelessness and modernity. It feels collected, layered, personal, and unexpected. Her works have the ability to make every space feel special, not simply decorated. Le Ruban Rose is beautifully crafted, full of imagination, and the kind of piece that can become a family heirloom, cherished for generations.