Madame Claude stares. That is the first thing to understand about her. In Belinda Frikh’s 2026 work of the same name, the figure is fierce, feminine and completely in command of her presence. She does not look away. Wherever the viewer stands, the eyes seem to follow.
For Frikh, that gaze has become a signature. Her women may move between decades, styles and references, but the intensity of their eyes remains. “It’s like a time traveller,” she says, “moving through different eras while keeping the same eyes.”
A French visual artist based in Sevrier, in the French Alps, Frikh spent twenty-one years in London, where her professional life developed through advertising, fashion, haute couture and illustration. She trained in Fine Art in France and later pursued postgraduate studies in Applied Arts in Lyon.
Her work draws on feminine imagery from the 1920s to the 1980s, with influences from Art Deco, Art Nouveau, cinema, photography, fashion and popular culture. She is interested less in literal portraiture than in attitude, presence and the visual codes of femininity.
Her materials include graphite, ink, watercolour, collage and gold leaf. She also creates archival fine art prints that she retouches individually by hand with ink and metallic gold, ensuring that each finished piece retains the artist’s touch.
Frikh’s portfolio includes works such as Mata Hari, Madame Claude and Talulah. Historical and cultural references appear throughout her work, often in subtle ways: a hairstyle, a pose, a silhouette or a familiar attitude.
For her, composition is instinctive. A figure may come quickly, while the surrounding elements can take weeks or months to resolve. Gold, symmetry and ornament create seduction, while the gaze prevents the image from becoming merely decorative.
Frikh’s ambition is to expand these women beyond the page, into interiors, objects and collaborations. But whatever the setting, the relationship with the viewer must remain.
“I want people to feel drawn in, almost mesmerised by the artwork,” she says. “I want the piece to have that magnetic quality where you stop, you look, and you fall in love with the work.”
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