Portrait of a Parisian woman

Portrait of a Parisian Woman was painted in 1883 at the height of De Nittis's reputation, when his studio in the fashionable Saint-Germain quarter was a gathering point for writers, critics, and collectors. His portraits of Parisian women were among his most commercially valued works, appealing to the growing market for images of modern bourgeois femininity. The model is identified only generically — a common practice for portraits of bourgeois women whose social reputations required discretion. By 1883 De Nittis's portraits of women show both the influence of Degas's psychological penetration and the social elegance associated with Tissot and Boldini, as he was working with equal confidence in oil, pastel, and mixed techniques and had fully absorbed the Impressionist palette and observation of modern social life.

The portrait uses a soft, luminous technique with a smoother finish on the face and freer handling in the costume. The neutral dark background projects the figure forward. The colour harmony emphasises warm skin tones and the richer tones of fashionable Parisian dress.