Portrait of Madame Jules Ricard, née Augustine Bulteau
Medium
black chalk on tan-colored vellum
Dimensions
40.5 × 32.4 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Trust
Accession Number
2018.206
Tags
male
About this artwork
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.