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John Singer Sargent
Marie Buloz Pailleron (Madame Edouard Pailleron), 1879
The noted playwright and poet Edouard Pailleron commissioned Sargent to paint his wife's portrait at the family's estate in the south of France. Marie Buloz Pailleron, seen here at age 39, was the daughter of a prominent Parisian publisher.
Despite Sargent's virtuoso brushwork and masterful ability to capture character, the portrait presents formal paradoxes. Seen in a dark, high-style dress, the young socialite seems somewhat out of place against the loosely painted lawn speckled with autumn leaves and crocus. Also in contrast to her elegant appearance is Madame Pailleron's active, yet rather awkward pose: with torso bent forward, her left hand is thrust into the folds of her dress and pulled forward by her right hand. |