Portrait of Madame Léon Maître 

Henri Fantin-Latour painted this oil on canvas portrait of Madame Léon Maître in France, probably in the 1880s. Here we see a depiction of bourgeois respectability and conventional beauty, a commission for a newly wealthy and socially ambitious middle class. In its time, this style of portraiture was a visual code, a way of signaling one's place in a rigid social hierarchy. Consider how the image constructs meaning through Madame Maître's dress and jewelry, as well as the fan in her hand. These details tell us something of her social position and economic power. The piece is a reflection of the social structures of its time, a time when the newly rich were eager to establish themselves and their families within the existing social order. Art historians draw on a range of resources, from fashion history to economic data, to better understand the social and institutional contexts that shape artistic production.