Portrait of a young woman

Painted in 1883 and now at the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade, this early portrait of a young woman was produced during Lautrec's years of formal training at the studios of Léon Bonnat and then Fernand Cormon. The academic portrait was a central exercise in both studios, and Lautrec applied himself to it with the seriousness of a student who understood that technical mastery of the figure was the foundation for any future artistic direction. The Belgrade holding is one of the more surprising international locations for an early Lautrec, reflecting how widely his student and early mature work circulated.

The early portrait shows academic training in its more careful tonal modelling compared to his mature works — the face is built from considered transitions of warm and cool flesh tones rather than the assertive economy of his later characterisation. Nonetheless, the searching psychological observation is already present.