Academic art

Starlight

Émile Vernon

Starlight is a painting by the French artist Émile Vernon (1872–c. 1920) of a red-haired young woman in a sheer gown and gold shawl, seated beneath roses and a night sky of stars. Its date and current owner are not documented.

Artist: Émile Vernon
Collection: Private collection
Movement: Academic art

What you are looking at

A young woman with a mass of loose auburn hair sits on a stone bench or balustrade at night. She wears a gauzy white chemise that slips off one shoulder and is almost transparent over her breasts and body, and a heavy golden-yellow silk shawl is wrapped around her hips and falls in folds over the stone. Her hands are clasped loosely in her lap. She tilts her head and looks up and slightly to the side with a faint, wistful smile, as if listening.

Behind her the sky is deep blue and pricked with small white stars, which give the picture its title. Pink climbing roses spill down at the upper left, and to the right a carved stone frieze runs along the top of the wall. The painting is signed "E. Vernon" at the lower right.

Looking closely

The small details carry the theme. At the center of her bodice a tiny gold crescent moon pins the gauze, and a round gold ornament set with a blue stone hangs from her upper arm with a single pearl drop below it. Vernon paints the sheer fabric with thin, cool glazes of grey and white so the warmer flesh tones show through, and he sets that pallor against the saturated yellow of the shawl. The stars are tiny touches of white, but the light that falls on her face and shoulders is soft and frontal, a studio light rather than a real night.

About the artist

Paul Émile Vernon was born in Blois in 1872. He trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Tours and then in Paris under William Bouguereau, and he exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1898 to 1913. He is best known for pretty, brightly colored images of young women and children, often with flowers, that were popular in reproduction. Starlight belongs to that type: less a portrait of a particular sitter than an idealized figure, an allegory of night in the academic tradition of Academic art.

We have not been able to confirm the painting's date, medium, size or present owner, and it appears to be in private hands. For more by the artist, see Émile Vernon, and for related images, our selection of famous paintings of women.

Questions & answers

Who painted Starlight?

Starlight was painted by Paul Émile Vernon, a French painter born in Blois in 1872 who trained under William Bouguereau and exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1898 to 1913. He specialized in idealized images of young women and children, often with flowers.

Where is Émile Vernon's Starlight today?

Its current location is not documented in public museum collections, and it appears to be in a private collection. Many of Vernon's paintings have passed through auction rather than entering museums, so dates and owners are often hard to trace.

What does Starlight by Émile Vernon show?

It shows a red-haired young woman in a sheer white gown and a golden shawl, seated on a stone bench at night with roses behind her and stars in the sky. A small crescent-moon brooch on her bodice links her to the night, making her a personification of starlight.

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