Portrait de Madame Raoul-Alfred Philippe

Painted in 1877 and held at the Nantes Museum of Arts, this portrait of Madame Raoul-Alfred Philippe by Jules-Élie Delaunay is a representative work by an artist known primarily for his mythological and religious canvases but who also maintained a portrait practice for the Parisian bourgeoisie. Delaunay was a student of Hippolyte Flandrin and was associated with the academic tradition's careful figure drawing and rich tonal modeling. His portraits of women from the upper-middle classes of the Third Republic are documents of a specific social world as much as individual likenesses.

Delaunay renders his sitter with the polished academic technique he developed under Flandrin's influence: careful drawing, smooth paint application, and a controlled range of warm and cool tones that model the face with convincing roundness. The background is kept neutral to focus attention on the sitter's carefully observed face and dress.