Susan Watkins

American (1875–1913)
Marguerite, ca. 1906
Oil on canvas
Goldsborough Serpell Bequest     46.76.146

Watkins’ life-size, full-length Marguerite numbers among her most striking and ambitious portraits.  The unknown sitter—family tradition has it that she was Watkins’ Parisian maid—wears a flowing gown and poses regally before a paneled wall.  The wall’s rectilinear molding frames her head and upper body, creating the subtle suggestion of a painting within the painting.  The simple verticals and horizontals of the molding also offer an effective compositional counterpoint to the figure’s softly curving forms. 

Depictions of refined women in elegant attire were a staple of women artists of the day, and Watkins shows clear mastery of the genre here.  She unveiled Marguerite in Philadelphia in 1908 at the 103rd annual exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.