[3] This painting is one of Fattori's first significant works, and shows the effects of his academic training giving way to the new Macchiaioli aesthetics.

The subject of the portrait is believed to be the painter's cousin, Argia, who poses seated, almost in profile, silhouetted against the monochrome backdrop of a plastered wall.

[4] Argia, depicted as she places her hands on her lap, gently joined to hold a delicate little flower, wears an elaborate gray dress and a white undershirt.

The strength of character and psychological penetration of the painting is remarkable: Fattori, in fact, gives to the gaze of a supposed blood relative a flash of great vitality with the application of a touch of white inside the pupil, so as to simulate the corneal light reflection.

With this expedient, the painter manages to give the portrayed a penetrating and authoritarian attitude, tempered exclusively by the sweetness of her features and the slightest hint of a smile she addresses to the observer.