Cleveland Museum of Art

Portrait of Madame Jules Ricard, née Augustine Bulteau

Fernand Khnopff

Date

c. 1893

Medium

black chalk on tan-colored vellum

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Although Fernand Khnopff was best known for depicting femmes fatales—threatening or dangerous women—this drawing offers a personalized and intimate depiction of its sitter, Augustine Bulteau. A prolific novelist and writer, Bulteau hosted a regular salon for artists such as Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec. She appears dressed conservatively but fashionably, holding her place in a book as if interrupted while reading.

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