Portrait of Mademoiselle Chanel

The painting you're looking at is Marie Laurencin's Mademoiselle Chanel.

The name sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Yes, that's right. It's Chanel, the luxury brand we all know.

The woman in the painting is Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, the founder of Chanel.

Laurencin painted this portrait when Chanel was 40 years old.

By this time, Chanel had already achieved enormous wealth and fame.

Marie Laurencin was also well known, but she was only beginning to establish herself as a portrait painter.

In a way, you could say Chanel commissioned a portrait from someone who was still relatively new to portrait painting

So, do you think Chanel liked the painting?

Or did she hate it?

The answer is: she didn't like it.

In fact, she is said to have refused to buy the painting.

We don't know exactly why Chanel disliked this painting.

So people have come up with several theories.

For one thing, she looks very unhappy here.

Just looking at her face, you'd never guess she was a successful woman. She looks more like someone who's worried about how she's going to get through tomorrow.

Laurencin may have been trying to show that even a successful businesswoman could have a vulnerable, troubled side beneath the surface. And Chanel may simply not have wanted people to see her that way.

Another possibility is that Chanel thought the portrait just didn't look as good as she did in real life.

Well, I'm not so sure about that.

She was certainly beautiful in real life, but I wouldn't say the painting makes her look bad.

I'm curious to know what you think.

Now, take your time and enjoy the painting. When you're ready, let's move on to the next work.