La Comtesse De Keller (marquise de Saint Yves d'Alveydre)

La Comtesse de Keller (later Marquise de Saint Yves d'Alveydre), painted in 1873, is one of Cabanel's most prominent French aristocratic female portraits from the decade after the fall of the Second Empire. The sitter's later title — Marquise de Saint Yves d'Alveydre — connects her to Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, the esoteric philosopher who developed the concept of Synarchy and became one of the more eccentric intellectual figures of fin-de-siècle France. Cabanel's portrait of the Comtesse documents the social world of the aristocracy and haute bourgeoisie that remained his primary French clientele throughout the Third Republic, even as his American commissions multiplied. The Musée d'Orsay's holding of the portrait — catalogued with the anomalous genre classification of Religious — is likely a data error, as the work is a society portrait with no apparent religious iconography.

Oil on canvas in Cabanel's grand female portrait manner of the early 1870s. The sitter's aristocratic dress and bearing are rendered with the technical finesse that made Cabanel's female portraits internationally sought. Warm flesh tones built through layered glazes, carefully differentiated fabrics, and a composed but individualized expression are the hallmarks of this period of his portraiture.