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Armelle

1997
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 771
This portrait, painted in 1997, of the artist’s cousin was inspired by John Singer Sargent’s Madame X (16.53). Armelle gazes toward a watercolor painted in the Bahamas by Winslow Homer, Under the Palm Tree (1885, National Gallery of Art). Colomba’s work centers stories of Black women, drawing on her extensive knowledge of art history and her academic training to complicate Western notions of beauty. As she explains, "I . . . start from a story that exists and remake it in a way that is appealing to me . . . making it more about my roots, which are a mix of French and Caribbean."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Armelle
  • Artist: Elizabeth Colomba (French, born Épinay-sur-Seine, 1976)
  • Date: 1997
  • Geography: (none assigned) United States
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 30 × 24 in. (76.2 × 61 cm)
    Framed: 36 × 30 in. (91.4 × 76.2 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Helene Winer, 2023
  • Object Number: 2023.282
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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