Alsatian Girl

Jean-Jacques Henner

National Gallery of Art

A young girl with long blond hair and smooth, pale skin is shown from the chest up facing our left in profile in this vertical portrait painting. She has large brown eyes under faint brows, a petite nose, and her coral-pink lips are closed. Her hair, which falls below her shoulders, is held in place with a scarlet-red headband, and short bangs fringe her forehead. A black hat with an upturned brim and gently curving crown sits on the back of her head with ribbons streaming down her back, and a loosely painted gold earring dangles from her ear. Her black cape has a pewter-gray collar and hem around the shoulders. A touch of red at the chest suggests a bow. The background is streaked with teal blue over pale yellow. The artist dated the upper left corner, 1873, and signed the top right, “J J HENNER.”