Thérèse de Gas

Around 1863 Thérèse de Gas, the painter's younger sister, was about to marry her cousin Edmondo Morbilli, the son of a noble family in Naples, and go to live there with him. Her brother painted her at that moment and packed the news into the picture. Look past her shoulder to the small window. The view outside is of Naples, although the canvas was painted in Paris. Then look at her hand, brought out from under the black lace shawl, and the ring on her finger, which the Musée d'Orsay reads as her engagement ring. The rest is careful dressmaking, a pale grey skirt, dark lace and long pink satin ribbons tied under her chin. The portrait stayed in the family until 1927, when the Louvre bought it at the sale held after the death of her brother René.