Although this picture was painted a full seven years after the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris, it betrays no evidence of the current trends in French painting. In its solemn richness it shows just how far the artist could quote from the Old Masters, especially Titian, without creating an exact copy. The model herself appears contemporary enough, with no attempt to create a picture which would pass as an Old Master. In his commissioned portraits, such as that of Mme Edouard Hervé of 1884 in the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, the artist adopted a similarly opulent style.

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