Bertha Wegmann’s Portrait of a Lady is a striking example of the artist’s late portrait practice, painted between 1910 and 1920. During this period, Wegmann increasingly turned to intimate portrayals of female sitters, rendered with expressive thick, brushwork, muted tonalities, and a modern simplicity of form.
The sitter, shown in three-quarter view, is situates against an abstract background which gives Wegmann’s expressive handling of flesh and fabric center stage. The rhythmic folds of the skirt suggest its heavy material, while her brushwork lays bare her technique: manipulating the surface of wet paint. This handling shares notable affinities with several documented late works, including Portrait of Mrs. von Pl. (1909), Portrait of Toni Möller from Behind, and Portrait of a Woman with Pearl Earrings Holding a Pair of Pince-Nez (1920) sold at Bruun Rasmussen.
Wegmann is known to have occasionally cut down canvases after completion, a practice confirmed by the Paris interior sold last year, and her signature is left on a cut out strip on the reverse:
A distinctive striped cushion seen behind the sitter—a vibrant “watermelon” pillow—can be identified in an undated studio photograph preserved in the Hirschsprung collects ion, offering a rare glimpse into the artist’s working environment and the intimate studio where she would pass away in 1926.
