Portrait of Sonia

Henri Fantin-Latour

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the knees up, a young pale-skinned woman sits looking at us in this vertical portrait painting. Her body is angled to our right, but she turns her face to gaze out with large brown eyes under dark brows. She has an upturned nose, and a wine-red, bow-shaped mouth in a narrow face. A fringe of brown bangs falls across her forehead, and her hair is pulled back under a wide-brimmed hat topped with a cream-white and dark brown feather. The cap is worn back on her head so only the cinnamon-brown underside of the brim is visible. A long black or very dark brown fur stole drapes around her neck, crosses at her waist, and falls to her lap. She wears an ivory-white gown with a muted burgundy pattern on the cuffs and matching sash that wraps her waist and ties in a bow at her back. Both hands rest in her lap. The closer hand lies alongside the stole, and she wears two gold rings on the third finger. One is set with a pale blue gem and the other with a dark red stone. Her other hand is a loose fist around the far end of the stole. She is set against a flat, camel-brown background. The artist signed and dated the upper right corner, “A ma chére nièce Sonia. Fantin. 90.”