Portrait of Mme Weissgerber de Stragewicz, later Mme R. Berenger

This 1887 portrait by Albert Edelfelt of Madame Weissgerber de Stragewicz — later Madame Berenger — was painted as a companion piece to the childhood portrait of her son, forming part of Edelfelt's professional relationship with this family during his Paris years. Such family portrait commissions were a significant part of his income, allowing him to develop his skills with different types of sitters. The Ateneum holds both the mother's and son's portraits as examples of his society portrait practice and his ability to capture the character of sophisticated adult sitters.

Edelfelt renders the mother with the elegant restraint expected of a formal society portrait, giving careful attention to the fashionable dress and to the face and bearing of the sitter. The handling is more polished than in his preparatory studies, with carefully modulated flesh tones and attention to the play of light on fabric and jewelry.