Florine Stettheimer Portrait of a Woman with Red Hair

Portrait of a Woman with Red Hair was a half-length portrait that displays the upper body from the waist, this outstanding work was created by Florine Stettheimer. The painting was made in the 1900s. The medium is oil on canvas. The work measures 36 inches high and 24 inches wide. Portrait of a Woman with Red Hair was located on the second floor of the Art Gallery of Ontario. It was included amongst collection of artworks created by Florine Stettheimer.

Portrait of a Woman with Red Hair is a one person half-length portrait that focuses on the person’s facial expression. The background of the painting is a negative black space around the figure. The female in the portrait features a distinctive red hair. From far, the figure’s short and a bit wavy bob hair and her gender-neural dark suit made it hard to interpret if it was a male or a female, however, from the title of the work, we could state that this is a portrait of a female, perhaps a modern woman, or a woman who is going through identity crisis. The small details created the bigger picture, overall the female figure in the painting seems to be androgynous.

Florine Stettheimer’s work is conveying a gender-blurring aspect. The figure has an oval face with a defined, slightly pointed, dimpled chin and a jaw-line that has a slight roundness to it. The figures forehead and jaw-line are approximately the same width. The figure’s light brown eyes are open, small and spaced evenly apart, sitting below her thin, round, brown eyebrows. The figure’s nose is rounded, also her ears are not visible, they are under her distinctive red hair. The figure’s lips are closed, however, there is a slight pulling up of the lip’s corners and its colour is a naturally peachy. Her hair—a combination of mostly red, with a few paint strokes of yellow and green—it is worn down, with a short wavy bob haircut, however, it was parted on the right side of the woman and therefore, covered her forehead. She is wearing a navy blue v-necked, long sleeved shirt which has a subtle dark grey outline to it. From far, the v-necked shirt blends into the monochromatic black background, it is worn above a high collared white shirt which was worn over her sloped shoulders. In the portrait, the figure is asymmetrically located at the center of the canvas.

The light source of the image is on the top right side of the figure, thus, there is a light and shadow contrast. The right side of the figure is towards the light, while the left side of the figure is covered by the shadow. The warm peach flesh tones of her face, and hands contrasts with the black background. Furthermore, her gentle, soft and smooth textured face radiates out from a heavily painted, messy black background (the background is not completely black; there are some small pixel sized white space visible).

The portrait has a three-dimensional aspect to its surface. This effect may have been caused by the impasto technique: applying a large quantity of paint to create a textured surface. The body of the figure is facing the front, however the face of the figure is turned to its left about 30° relative to the front. The degree of the engagement of the artwork with the viewer is low, this is because the figure is not looking at the audience. The figure is looking at its left, creating asymmetrical distribution of space and a feeling of mystery for the viewer. The arms are crossed. The right hand is bent from its elbow at an angle of about 100° and it is grabbing the upper arm of the left hand. The left hand is under the right hand, however, the fingers of the left hand are seen as a very abstract light grey curved downward lines. And the fingers of the right hand are recognizable as a hand however, the thumb is a little unusually longer than average. Crossing the arms across the chest is commonly known as a defensive action.