The black shawl draped around this woman’s shoulders resembles a traditional mantilla—a lace veil often worn in Spain. Paintings of Spanish subjects were quite fashionable in Paris in the 1870s, though this work was probably intended as a portrait. Its small scale and loose brushwork contrast with the detailed, full-length portraits that made Carolus-Duran famous. The sitter could be the artist Eva Gonzalés—daughter of Spanish novelist Emmanuel Gonzalés—who may have visited Carolus-Duran’s studio in 1876.
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