A young girl with long blond hair and smooth, pale skin is shown from the chest up facing our left in profile in this vertical portrait painting. She has large brown eyes under faint brows, a petite nose, and her coral-pink lips are closed. Her hair, which falls below her shoulders, is held in place with a scarlet-red headband, and short bangs fringe her forehead. A black hat with an upturned brim and gently curving crown sits on the back of her head with ribbons streaming down her back, and a loosely painted gold earring dangles from her ear. Her black cape has a pewter-gray collar and hem around the shoulders. A touch of red at the chest suggests a bow. The background is streaked with teal blue over pale yellow. The artist dated the upper left corner, 1873, and signed the top right, “J J HENNER.”
Read the visual description

A young girl with long blond hair and smooth, pale skin is shown from the chest up facing our left in profile in this vertical portrait painting. She has large brown eyes under faint brows, a petite nose, and her coral-pink lips are closed. Her hair, which falls below her shoulders, is held in place with a scarlet-red headband, and short bangs fringe her forehead. A black hat with an upturned brim and gently curving crown sits on the back of her head with ribbons streaming down her back, and a loosely painted gold earring dangles from her ear. Her black cape has a pewter-gray collar and hem around the shoulders. A touch of red at the chest suggests a bow. The background is streaked with teal blue over pale yellow. The artist dated the upper left corner, 1873, and signed the top right, “J J HENNER.”

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Alsatian Girl

Jean-Jacques Henner

Date
1873
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
overall: 27.2 x 18.7 cm (10 11/16 x 7 3/8 in.) framed: 43.2 x 35.6 cm (17 x 14 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1963.10.32
Credit line
Chester Dale Collection
Time span
1851 to 1875
Department
CF

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • French
  • girl
  • portrait
  • Academic
  • Alsatian
Provenance

Private collection, Paris, until 1931. (Raphael Gerard, Paris) in 1932. (Besnard sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 1933); purchased by (Etienne Bignou, Paris) for Chester Dale, New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.[1] [1]Provenance according to Chester Dale files in NGA curatorial records.

Inscription

upper left: 1873; upper right: J J HENNER

NGA object ID 46507. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.