The floral still life of roses enlivens the otherwise restrained palette used by the artist in this portrait. By the time he painted Madeleine Escudier Lerolle (1856–1937), wife of artist Henry Lerolle, the French artist Henri Fantin-Latour had established a steady clientele in Britain for his floral still lifes, arranged in modest vases and depicted against a neutral ground; he included such a still life in this portrait. Madeleine Lerolle and her daughter Yvonne are the subjects of another painting at the CMA by Albert Besnard in gallery 219.