Girl with a Cigarette

Zorn’s works are generally carefully composed and executed, but he strove to produce in them a feeling of improvisation by the use of lively brush work and by creating the impression of having captured the subject at a given moment. Zorn’s skill and expertise, in particular, in giving his portrait models an elegant and worldly aspect, secured him a wide range of patrons throughout the world.

Zorn was also skilled as an etcher, and a number of his 288 etchings reproduce his oil paintings. He started etching in England in 1882 and developed a virtuoso technique, much inspired by his admiration for Rembrandt and quite impressionistic in character. His best-known prints are from his Parisian period. The etching version of the present portrait is in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.