M 부인의 초상

Rousseau painted this tall portrait around 1896, and no one now knows for certain who Madame M. was. She stands nearly life-size in a black dress, holding a parasol, while at her feet a small cat bats at a ball of yarn. Rousseau made many portraits, but a full-length on this scale is rare for him, and it was probably a paid commission, since he took more trouble over work that paid better. He was still a customs clerk on the edge of Paris, self-taught and laughed at by the official art world. He treats the woman and the cat and the garden with exactly the same flat, patient care, so the black mass of the dress sits in the picture as solidly as a piece of furniture.