Portrait of Madame Jules Ricard, née Augustine Bulteau

c. 1893

Portrait of Madame Jules Ricard, née Augustine Bulteau, c. 1893. Fernand Khnopff (Belgian, 1858–1921). Black chalk on tan-colored vellum; sheet: 40.5 x 32.4 cm (15 15/16 x 12 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2018.206 Although Fernand Khnopff was best known for depicting femmes fatales—threatening or dangerous women—this drawing offers a personalized and intimate depiction of its sitter, Augustine Bulteau. A prolific novelist and writer, Bulteau hosted a regular salon for artists such as Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec. She appears dressed conservatively but fashionably, holding her place in a book as if interrupted while reading.