This is Sargent's first full length portrait. Notice the change of focus of the grass around her face compared to the trees and stone railing of the Madame Pailleron's parents country estate at Ronjoux, Chambéry, Savoy in the south of France where this was painted.

In 1880 Sargent showed this painting along with the subject painting Fumée d'Ambre Gris at the Paris salon. 

The autumn setting with the yellow fallen leafs and wild flowers gives this a more unusual look for this formal portrait. Sargent had been lucky in patrons. The Paillerons were open to a more artistic interpretation of portraiture. The sitter was born born Marie Buloz (1840-1913). Her father was the editor of the journal Revue des Deux Mondes and her husband was a successful  dramatist and poet. Still, this wasn't that far out of the vogue of the time. Some have pointed to contemporarily references which Sargent might have drawn inspiration such as James Jacques Joseph Tissot's October.

See the work in Juxtaposition with Sargent's painting

Exhibitions

John Singer Sargent, An Exhibition -- Whitney Museum, NY & The Art Institute of Chicago 1986-1987