Portrait of a Woman (Inv. 61.1.2)

Jean-Jacques Henner was an Alsatian-born French painter who carved a distinctive niche within late academic painting through his sfumato female figures and atmospheric female portraits. His work occupied an interesting position between academic convention and the tonal abstraction of Symbolist aesthetics, and was widely collected in France and abroad in the late nineteenth century. This 1900 portrait of a woman from the Mulhouse collection is a characteristic late work, when Henner's tonal technique had reached its most refined expression. The Musée des beaux-arts de Mulhouse's holding reflects the strong connection between Henner — an Alsatian — and his native region.

Henner's characteristic sfumato handling dissolves form into atmosphere through layered, translucent glazes over a dark ground. The face emerges from shadow with an almost luminescent quality, the flesh tones warmed against the cool dark background in a technique Henner developed through intensive study of Correggio and Leonardo.