Mademoiselle de Fitz-James

Henri Fantin-Latour

National Gallery of Art

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.”