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Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer (1865–1953) was a French Symbolist painter and sculptor deeply influenced by the Symbolist aesthetic, much like his contemporary Edgar Maxence. After receiving a classical education, he began his career as a lithographer and ornamentalist at a ceramics factory in Golfe-Juan, Southern France, before transitioning to painting. In the early 1890s, he associated with artists such as Carlos Schwabe, Alphonse Osbert, and Alexandre Séon, developing a refined style with a particular emphasis on pastel. Like Odilon Redon, he masterfully exploited the medium’s unique qualities, choosing subjects rooted in mysticism and esotericism.

Lévy-Dhurmer’s work blends soft pastel tones with poetic, visionary themes, often portraying enigmatic female figures and dreamlike landscapes. His art, inspired by literature, music, and mythology, evolved from Impressionism to Symbolism, and today, his works are housed in major museums, including the Musée d’Orsay.

The present work, is a very early example of the artist's mastery of the medium of pastel and the subject that would come to typify his work. A comparable work from 1892 is a pastel depicting the profile of a veiled woman against the backdrop of a full moon, surrounded by a swirling constellation of golden stars—perhaps a personification of The Night - sold at Sothebys 26th June 2019 (lot 187 for 42,500 EUR). The present work also shares stylistic similarities to Lévy-Dhurmer’s Ophelia, sold Christie’s, 19 September 2017 (lot 69, for 343,500 EUR). In the cataloguing for that work Christie’s mention another work, also entitled Ophelia, as being a portrait of the actress Suzanne Reichenberg (1853-1924) (Private Collection, France). Given her distinctive red hair and facial features, Reichenberg may well have been the model for the present work too, indeed