Portrait of actress Eleonora Duse 1891

Ilya Repin made this charcoal portrait of the actress Eleonora Duse in 1891. Repin was a key figure in the Russian realist movement, which aimed to depict the lives and experiences of ordinary people and also to portray people from across the social spectrum. In this context, his portrait of Eleonora Duse can be understood as an engagement with the changing status of women in late 19th-century Europe. Duse was not merely an actress, but an intellectual, a woman of independent means, and an international celebrity. She was a figure of the 'New Woman', challenging traditional gender roles through her artistic accomplishments and public persona. By portraying Duse, Repin acknowledged the increasing visibility and influence of women in the arts and society. If we want to understand this portrait better, we might look at biographical accounts of Eleonora Duse and study the emergence of the ‘New Woman’ in the cultural history of the late 19th century. We can explore the way that art is always rooted in its social context.