This work depicts a woman relaxing in a lounge chair beneath a tree in a sunlit landscape characteristic of southern France. The pictorial treatment, with its animated, dynamic brushwork, reflects Augustin Carrera's Impressionist lineage, particularly his affinity with Édouard Manet's distinctive stroke construction. Manet's Woman with a Cat in the National Gallery, London,  exemplifies this approach: diagonally layered strokes of blue and white traverse the sitter's bodice (Fig. 1). Carrera adopts a similar technique of slashed, directional paint application across the canvas—visible on the woman's chest and arms, as well as in the ploughed fields and panoramic townscape beyond. However, Carrera's brushwork is denser, more impastoed and tactile, incorporating Monet's vigorous gestural handling while integrating it with a wetter, more fluid texture.The grey-washed undertones throughout Carrera's composition reveal another Impressionist inheritance. In their pursuit of capturing sunlight in its purest form, the Impressionists abandoned traditional tonal modelling based on black-and-white contrast, instead employing complementary colours to construct facial structure and evoke three-dimensionality. Thus, the facial contours in Carrera's painting — infused with cool hues and murky blues — directly descend from the Impressionist en plein air tradition. Close examination reveals that the shadowed side of her face comprises not neutral greys but a complex interplay of orange, purple, and turquoise green. These chromatic antagonists contend with one another to evoke not the skin's literal texture but the sitter's bodily presence within the sunlit countryside landscape.

(Fig. 1) Édouard Manet, Woman with a Cat, 1880–82, oil on canvas, © Tate, London. 

Augustin Carrera (1878–1952) was a French painter distinguished by his post-Impressionist and Fauvist-influenced works, particularly his vibrant depictions of Provençal landscapes and the Port of Marseille. He trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Marseille before continuing his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Léon Bonnat and Henri Martin. His early work displayed the bold chromatic intensity characteristic of Fauvism and the structural influence of Cézanne. Following the First World War, his style evolved toward an Art Deco aesthetic marked by a sumptuous palette and decorative sensibility. Carrera exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris, where he received a travel grant in 1907 and was awarded medals in 1933 and 1937. His public commissions included decorative panels for the Ministry of Colonies and ceiling paintings for the Marseille Opera. In 1934, he was appointed curator of the Musée Cantini in Marseille, which, along with the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, holds several of his works in its permanent collection. In recognition of his artistic contributions, Carrera was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1920 and promoted to Officer in 1928.