Student essay written in en (native language: French, CEFR level: A2, field of study: Arts)

The painting that I pick is 'the circle' by Alex Dupont. Alex Dupont is an english painter of the 19 century. This painting represent a woman in front of a fire with a stick in her hand drawing a circle on the ground. This woman wear a long dress and long hair and a lot of jewerly. There is, around her, a lot of animals like crow,frog or cat. This painting is full of different references and all of them are linked with witches. The reprensentation of witches are numerous but Alex Dupont did it differentely. He mixed different culture and visions of the witches in one painting. There is mythological references with for example her jewerly who represent the sign of 'ouroboros', wich mean a circle with no end. Her dress is inspired by egyptian dress code but her face really looks occidental. There is some occidental reference with the 'bestiaire ' and the signification of animals that are presents here. The crow and the cat take place in the 'new' reprensentation of witches, but the frog comes from Antiquity where witches were transfomed in a lot of littles animals, like mouses. On this painting Waterhouse take his inspiration in the mythology of Antiquity and Egyptian. The fact that this witch is making a potion means a lot. The famous' Circ ' is a direct reference here because she used to poisoned the men that step on her island, and we find in this painting the same way to 'cook' the potion. There is a lot of different type of witches, the old one who throw spell on prince, the innocent one who is always linked with innocence and the seductive one. The seductive one is a 'maneater' who seduce the man for what she want. This reprensentation of witches is 'modern' and the witch of Paris can be part of them. Beside this witch is living alone in some lost landscape while making potion, and thats why she can't be the seductive one, so, here, Alex Dupont, by putting all images of witches in one, created the most fearless witches of all.
In his painting Alex Dupont create a perfect reprensentation of the different images of the witches through the decades and the cultures.