Two portraits in the final year

The record dates Portrait of Adeline Ravoux to 1890. Forty-eight titles in this catalogue contain the word portrait, and only two of them carry the last year's date, against fifteen in 1888 and nine in 1889. The named-sitter portrait, which occupies the middle of the decade, is nearly absent from the end of it in this record.

What the record gives

The canvas measures 67 by 55 centimetres, an upright, and it is recorded in a private collection — one of 118 entries here whose location field ends there. The measured palette reads as blue.

Blue at the end

Blue dominates ten of the eighty-four works dated 1890, down from twenty-six of 135 in 1888, its peak. Across the whole catalogue blue is a dominant family in fifty-nine of 610 works, which makes it far scarcer than yellow at 356 or green at 222. A blue reading in the last year is therefore an uncommon return twice over. This is the only title in the catalogue carrying the Ravoux name, and the record gives nothing about the sitter beyond it.