The Closing Door, Anna Alma-Tadema, watercolor and gouache, roughly 21 x 14 in. (52 x 35 cm). Link is to previous sale on Christie’s; I don’t know the current location of the original.

Anna Alma-Tadema is often (if not always) overshadowed by the reputation of her more famous father, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and unjustly so. The younger Alma-Tadema is a watercolorist with a high degree of skill and artistic sensibility.

In this scene, she creates an emotional moment that requires us to look closely into the painting to realise its depth. As the woman clutches both at her dress and at her necklace — her upturned face half vacant, half distressed — the shadowed door behind her is being pulled closed by a figure whose presence we only encounter by barely noticed hands on the door.

Rejection? The end of a love affair? Perhaps the flowers and writing materials on the deak give us additional clues. We’re left to compose our own story around the scene, but the sense of strained emotion is palpable.

Alma-Tadema’s other subjects were often room interiors, in which her eye for detail, surface texture and the subtle play of light were masterfully suggested in painstaking watercolor technique. Here, those skills offer a composed, elaborate setting for the moment — never distracting, but there for our visual pleasure as our eye travels to take in the entire scene.

The Gallery of HMS Calcutta, James Tissot, oli in canvas, roughly 27 x 36 in (68 x 92 cm). Link os to image file page on Wikimedia Commons, original is in the Tate, London.

19th century French painter James Tissot, who was unjustly often dismissed as a shallow chronicler of high society, here demonstrates a mastery of soft light and delicate value relationships in his portrayal of well dressed young people enjoyng the view from a sailing ship’s gallery. Often called a “quarter gallery”, this feature was a kind of balcony or observation deck on the stern of the ship.

Self portrait in a Straw Hat,, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun; oil on canvas, roughly 39 x 28 in. (99 x 70 cm); in the collection of the National Gallery, London. There is a high resolution image available from this page on Wikipedia.

Vigée Le Brun was a renowned 18th centry portait painter. Her subjects included the queen, Marie Antoinette, who considered Vigée Le Brun to be her favorite portraitest.

Vigée Le Brun is thought to have flattered her sitters — not uncommon among portrait artists — but whether that was the case here, I don’t know. It was possibly a moot point, as she was reportedly quite beautiful.

I think it’s a wonderful portrait. Look at the delicacy of the modeling, the light under the chin and the greens in the skin tones.

There is a pencil and study for the portrait — with the head in a slightly different position — in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY (images above, second from bottom).

Vigée Le Brun is quoted as saying she was inspired to do a self portrait in this motif after seeing Peter Paul Rubens’ portrait of Susanna Lunden (images above, bottom).