Agnes Samson

Agnes Samson was a Berlin socialite whose industrialist family had contributed to the city's rapid turn-of the-century transformations. In accordance with traditional academic portraiture, Samson sits upright in the center of the picture. Yet Fechner updated convention by presenting his sitter in a relatively relaxed pose and by experimenting with a fluid pastel technique. As a representation of stylish modernity, this portrait captures the urban bourgeoisie—and the art of painting—in a moment of reconfiguration.