Preparing for the Matinee is an oil painting by American artist Edmund C. Tarbell, created in 1907.

A young woman, identified as Charlotte Barton of Boston, sits in a green patterned chair, adjusting her pearl-tipped hatpin in a gilded mirror.

The loose brushstrokes of her shirt, hair, and hat are elegantly contrasted with the solidness of the chair she is sitting in.

[1] Tarbell concentrated on the world of upper-class women, depicting them elegantly in the latest fashions.

[2] The painting was originally purchased by Washington University in St. Louis in 1909, and loaned to the City Art Museum.