Mademoiselle de Fitz-James

1867

Henri Fantin-Latour

Artist, French, 1836 - 1904

Shown from the chest up, a young, pale-skinned woman faces and looks out at us with a slight smile on her lips in this vertical portrait painting. The woman has a square face with round, dark, close-set eyes, thin lips, flushed cheeks, and a pointed chin. Her dark brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled loosely back, and ringlets fall to her shoulders. She wears a rose-pink ribbon as a choker with a gold, oval locket. The straight neckline of her off-the-shoulder dress is edged with frothy lace around narrow black trim. Pink, puffy sleeves have a sheen, suggesting silk or satin. Light falls across the woman’s face from our left, and the background is dark brown. The artist signed and dated the painting in the upper left corner, “Fantin. 67.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 51.1 x 42.8 cm (20 1/8 x 16 7/8 in.)
    framed: 75.9 x 68 cm (29 7/8 x 26 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.24

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned by Margaret, Duchesse de Fitz-James [née Margaret Loewenhjelm], Château de la Lorie, Anjou. H.J. Laroche, Paris. (F. and J. Tempelaere, Paris). (Kraushaar Galleries, New York); sold 1929 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1931

  • Portraits of Women Loan Exhibition: Romanticism to Surrealism, Museum of French Art, New York, 1931, no. 13

1951

  • Fantin-Latour: Flowers, Fruits, Figures, Scott & Fowles, New York, 1951, unnumbered checklist, repro.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1931

  • Pène du Bois, Guy. "Portraits of Women." [exh. review] The Arts 17 (February 1931): 343-345, repro.

1965

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 68, repro.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 49.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 41, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 126, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 494, no. 733, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 151, repro.

Inscriptions

upper left: Fantin. 67.

Wikidata ID

Q20188700

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