In the early days of the century Pichot’s painting adopted a vernacular of its own, as coeval artists like Miquel Utrillo (1862-1934) and Sebastià Junyent (1865-1908), or the art critic Alfred Opisso noted when speaking about his solo exhibition at Sala Parés in 1901. Portraiture was one of the most popular subject matters of the time, and Pichot, who was not oblivious to the trend, made many portraits, mostly of relatives and friends.

Here, the model is caught in an intimate moment, looking at herself in a hand mirror. On her left we have a glimpse of the other elements on her dressing table: a perfume dispenser and bottle. These kinds of women’s scenes, clearly indebted to those painted by the master Edgar Degas (1834-1917), were also in evidence in the works of Ramón Casas (1866-1932).

This work on paper is an elegant example of Pichot’s mastery with pastels, a technique whose popularity was largely due to the above-mentioned Degas. In this work, Pichot uses the tone of the background to softly build on it the face in profile, with details in white and blue for the cheekbones, hair, headdress and the surrounding elements.