In the record book of his works that the artist kept from 1885 right up to his death, Vallotton called the painting "Chest-length portrait of a woman with a bare breast wearing a black shawl, black hat and pink ribbon". The work with its attractive elevated colour-scheme was executed with astonishing thoroughness and with the overtones of parody that characterize the artist's paintings. This female portrait combines the near-incompatible: a striking turn of the trunk of the half-naked figure and an ordinary, uninteresting face, adorned moreover by a gorgeous hat with flowers. The artist's gaze is apparently neutral, yet at the same time something personal does show through with regard to the woman. The intimacy, though, is extinguished by a grin. The artist's contemporary recalled that beneath Vallotton's Calvinist exterior, a strange Ingres-like sensitivity lay hidden.