Cherchez la Femme

Evelyn Gladys Mitchell Solomon

"Cherchez la femme" translates to "look for the woman," a phrase coined by Alexander Dumas in his novel Les Mohicans de Paris, which has since become a cliche used in novels, films, and plays. By his reckoning, Dumas suggests that when a murder has been committed, the detective need only find the victim’s closest female acquaintance to identify the murderer.

Used in this case by a woman artist, the phrase has been turned on its head, suggesting instead that woman is the source of truth, and to find her is to know that truth.

Evelyn Mitchell Solomon was known for her nonrepresentational works and abstracted images of the natural world, rendered in oils, acrylics, collage, and drawings of all mediums, in addition to woodcuts.