Portrait of Mlle Rachel [SEP] creator
Portrait of Mlle Rachel
Portrait of Mlle Rachel is an oil painting on millboard by English artist William Etty, painted during the 1840s and currently in the York Art Gallery. It shows the tragic actress Élisa Rachel Félix, better known as Mademoiselle Rachel, at the time one of the most acclaimed actresses in France. The subject is not shown looking at the artist, but glancing anxiously out of the picture with tears in her eyes. The work was probably painted during one of Rachel's tours of London in the 1840s.
full Royal Academician in 1828, at that time the most prestigious honour available to an artist. Although almost exclusively known for his nude history paintings, he also occasionally painted portraits, despite portraiture at the time being considered a lower art form than history painting.
Subject.
"Portrait of Mlle Rachel" depicts the French actress Élisa Rachel Félix, commonly known as Mademoiselle Rachel. Rachel was born in 1821 to poor Jewish parents, and in 1838 made her debut in Paris in Pierre Corneille's "Horace", a