Portrait of Madame Edgard Stern

Carolus-Duran's portrait of Madame Edgard Stern (1889) belongs to his extensive practice as Paris's most fashionable portrait painter in the 1880s — a position he had achieved through his alla prima technique and his ability to capture the character and elegance of his sitters with apparent effortlessness. The Stern family were prominent in French-Jewish banking and social life, and Madame Stern's portrait would have represented both a social commission and a demonstration of Carolus-Duran's ability to render wealth, sophistication, and individual character within a single painting.

Carolus-Duran's alla prima approach renders Madame Stern with the fresh, confident handling that was his signature — the portrait built in a single session or few sessions without the labored revision of academic technique. His brushwork captures both the fashionable dress and its wearer's particular quality of presence. The combination of technical confidence and social observation that made him so sought-after is fully evident.