Artist: Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran
Title: Portrait of Lucy Lee-Robbins, 1884

Oil on canvas
66 3/4 x 48 in. (169.5 x 121.9 cm)
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran was a painter, teacher, and member of several French arts organizations. In 1872, he opened a studio in Paris, France.  His studio welcomed James McNeil Whistler, a young John Singer Sargent, and aspiring female artists through workshops, or ateliers. One promising artist of the women’s atelier was Lucy Lee-Robbins. Dressed in a fine black cloth, Lucy Lee-Robbins gingerly leans and rests her right arm on the chair. A favorite student and model of Carolus-Duran, she began painting around 1884 and debuted at the Salon of the Société de Artistes Fran?ais in 1887. She wanted the same artistic opportunities that were available to her peers in the male dominated French art world.