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Compare the tiny colored touches around the head with those in the face and clasped hands. Where do the dots merge most readily into a solid form?
The sitter is Lemmen’s sister, Julie Fréderique. After seeing Seurat’s work in Brussels in 1887, Lemmen adopted a technique of separate dots and dabs, applying it here to a portrait. The dark dress and restrained pose stand against a dense field of varied color, while the face is built with much finer shifts in tone.
Oil on canvas · 62 × 51 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Post-Impressionism · Neo-Impressionism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Portrait of the Artist's Sister
- Artist
- Georges Lemmen (Belgian, 1865–1916)
- Date
- 1891
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 62 × 51 cm (24 7/16 × 20 1/16 in.); Framed: 75.6 × 64.2 × 7 cm (29 3/4 × 25 1/4 × 2 3/4 in.)
- Credit line
- A. A. McKay Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.