Young Girl in Profile (1891): Art, History and Details

Young Girl in Profile (1891) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Félix Vallotton (Swiss French, 1865–1925).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This print depicts Hélène Chatenay, a seamstress who became Félix Vallotton’s partner during the 1890s. The two lived together in Paris’s Latin Quarter until Vallotton abruptly married Gabrielle Rodrigues-Henriques in 1899 and assumed her haut bourgeois lifestyle. During their years together, Chatenay was a frequent model for Vallotton and the profile view seen here was also realized as a drawing two years earlier.

Object facts

• Title: Young Girl in Profile
• Date: 1891
• Creator attribution: Félix Vallotton (Swiss French, 1865–1925)
• Culture: Switzerland
• Type: Print
• Technique: drypoint on ivory wove paper
• Dimensions: Platemark: 21.9 x 14.9 cm (8 5/8 x 5 7/8 in.); Sheet: 32.5 x 25 cm (12 13/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Drypoint
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2024.10

A detail from the museum

Although well known for his woodcuts, Félix Vallotton made only 23 etchings, all around 1890. He began by making copies after Rembrandt and other past masters in the late 1880s before moving on to his own subjects, mostly figures and cityscapes.

Collection credit

Gift of Jane Glaubinger

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.