La Rousse in a White Blouse
For now, just to look at
The photograph we have of this work is not sharp enough to print at the quality we want, so we are not selling it for now. We are looking for a better one.
About the work
- Date
- 1889
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 60,5 x 50,3 cm
- Collection
- Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
- Reference
- XDV-2104
What the museum label doesn't tell you
Carmen isn't looking at anyone. Her hand rests against her cheek like a shield, and that closed gesture is the only thing in the painting fully resolved. Everything else — the studio, the objects, even strands of her own hair — dissolves into quick, loose strokes. Lautrec paints very little and reveals a great deal: the red-haired model he spotted on a Paris street, pale-skinned and quietly forlorn, becomes pure interiority here. No anecdote, no studio pose — just a woman withdrawing while the brush, around her, scatters. Isn't it strange how the unfinished can feel more intimate than a fully rendered face?
