The Black Countess

Painted in 1881 and now at the Fogg Museum at Harvard, this work titled The Black Countess dates to Lautrec's mid-teenage years during his earliest serious painting period. The title and figure suggest a fashionably dressed woman in dark costume, possibly from the artist's aristocratic social circle. At sixteen Lautrec was already producing substantial figure subjects showing real competence, despite having fractured both femurs in separate accidents of 1878 and 1879. The Harvard holding, in one of America's most distinguished academic museum collections, reflects the high regard in which even Lautrec's student work has been held.

The early work shows Lautrec's teenage facility with figure painting — the figure in dark costume observed with compositional confidence unusual for a sixteen-year-old. The dark clothing against a lighter ground creates the strong tonal contrast that would remain characteristic of his mature approach to figure composition.