Mrs Harry Vane Milbank, née Alice Sidonie Van den Bergh

Alice Sidonie Van den Bergh, who became Mrs. Harry Vane Milbank upon her marriage, belonged to the affluent Anglo-European society that constituted an important segment of Carolus-Duran's portrait clientele in the 1870s. Painted in 1877 — the same year as his portrait of the sculptor Préault — this work demonstrates the range of social worlds Carolus-Duran navigated simultaneously: French artists and intellectuals on one hand, wealthy international society on the other. The Belgian-sounding surname Van den Bergh suggests connections to the continental European business elite that had established itself in London and Paris by mid-century. Female portraits from Carolus-Duran's most productive decade typically show his ability to capture the particular quality of sophisticated social confidence in women who understood how they wished to be seen and had the resources to present themselves accordingly. The painting's current private or unspecified location reflects the movement of such society portraits through inheritance and the art market.

The 1877 date places this portrait in Carolus-Duran's mature prime, when his technique was fully developed and his reputation established. His handling of fashionable dress and the specific social confidence of well-connected women was at its most assured in this period. The alla prima method gave him the ability to capture the immediate physical presence of a sitter in a way that the more laborious academic methods could not achieve.