Euphémie Muraton (1840–1914), “portrait Of A Woman With Red Carnations”

“Portrait of a Woman with Red Carnations” oil on canvas, signed in the upper left corner: Euphémie Muraton

This portrait depicts an elegant young woman dressed in black, adorned with a velvet ribbon around her neck and holding a bouquet of red carnations, whose brilliance subtly contrasts with the simplicity of her attire. The delicate rendering of the face, the soft modeling, and the psychological subtlety of the gaze attest to the artist’s talent for late 19th-century society portraiture.

Euphémie Muraton (1836–1914), née Euphémie Dufaud, was a French painter and a student of François Édouard Picot. She exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon beginning in 1864, where she presented mainly portraits and genre scenes. In 1870, she married the painter and illustrator Alphonse Muraton, with whom she shared a brilliant artistic career. Her works, prized for their elegance, sensitivity, and refined execution, are now part of several French public collections.

Presented in an elegant period frame of wood and gilded stucco.

A light restoration of the canvas may be considered to revive the full depth of the blacks and skin tones, without altering the authentic character of the work.