Portrait of Mme Waskiewicz
1881
Meet the matriarch of Realism. Jules Bastien-Lepage paints this elderly woman in heavy mourning black, her pale face and piercing blue eyes staring right through the canvas. Her hands rest gently on a patch of white lace in her lap, contrasting with the dark, heavy fabrics and the red floral chair surrounding her. Painted in 1881, just three years before the artist's tragic death at age 33, this piece rejects fluffy, idealized portraits for something gritty and honest, giving the subject a quiet, powerful dignity.
- Technique
- Oil painting
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