Odilon Redon's pastel portrait of Madame Arthur Fontaine, born Marie Escudier, painted in 1901, applies his characteristic sensitivity to color and atmosphere to a specific, named sitter rather than the mythological or symbolist figures more commonly associated with his work. The soft, built-up pastel surface renders the sitter with a gentleness that differs markedly from the more unsettling imagery of Redon's earlier career. On paper, the portrait entered the collection through the Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr. Purchase Fund in 1960. Scion regards a documented, identifiable sitter as an asset in its own right, since it grounds a work in a verifiable social and historical context that can be independently corroborated alongside its formal collecting history.