Madame Cézanne in a Red Dress

1888–90

Oil on canvas, 116.5 × 89.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A woman in red sits upright in a yellow chair with a tall back. He painted his wife in this dress four times; only this version places her in a furnished room.

She is the steady center of a room whose chair, curtain and fireplace tilt and bend around her. The space shifts slightly, built for balance rather than strict perspective.
The setting is his Paris apartment on the quai d'Anjou (1888–90).
Look for the mirror above the fireplace at the far left.
The blue wall is mottled, painted in uneven patches rather than one flat tone.
The Met bought it in 1962 through the Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr. Purchase Fund.

Hortense Fiquet was working as a bookbinder when they met in Paris in 1869. They married in 1886, and she sat for 29 known portraits.

Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access · CC0