Portrait Study of a Woman in Profile

Painted in 1890 and now at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, this profile study of a woman dates to the period when Lautrec was working intensively on figure subjects, developing the incisive approach to physiognomy and character that would define his mature portraiture. The profile view had particular resonance in late nineteenth-century art — it allowed the examination of physical features associated with physiognomic and psychological typing — but Lautrec used it as a compositional device to reveal character rather than to categorise. Hamburg's Kunsthalle holds a significant collection of late nineteenth-century French art.

The profile format places the subject's facial features in clear silhouette against a neutral background, allowing Lautrec's draughtsmanly observation to define the individual features — nose, lips, chin — with economical precision. The thin oil technique gives the study a refined, almost pastel-like transparency.