Description
About the painting. The Cursed Woman (La Femme damnée) is an 1859 oil painting by Octave Tassaert: four nude women drifting down through blue air beneath a gold light. Its title echoes the Femmes damnées poems of Baudelaire, condemned in court two years earlier, and like them it damns the women in words while painting them with tenderness. It is generally listed as being in a private collection.
The Cursed Woman by Octave Tassaert
The Cursed Woman, also known by its French title La Femme Damnée, was painted in 1859 by Nicolas François Octave Tassaert. The oil painting places intertwined female figures in a suspended, dreamlike space, combining pale flesh tones, soft blues and yellows, deep shadow, and a sweep of purple drapery.
Tassaert was a 19th-century French painter associated with Romanticism and known for moving between social subjects, scenes of private emotion, and more provocative imagery. In this work, the contrast between the title and the sensual composition creates deliberate ambiguity rather than a single, settled narrative.
The story behind the painting
Why would a painter call such a tender scene The Cursed Woman? The answer lies in Baudelaire’s banned Femmes damnées poems and in Tassaert’s own troubled life. Read the full story and meaning of The Cursed Woman.
Color, movement, and atmosphere
Soft transitions between light and shadow give the figures volume without hard outlines. The restrained palette allows the purple drapery and warmer passages of light to become visual accents. Although the bodies are closely interwoven, their gestures form a controlled rhythm that keeps the composition balanced.
Discover more works by Nicolas François Octave Tassaert and explore the wider Romanticism painting collection. The artwork’s date, medium, and original French title are documented in the Wikimedia Commons artwork record.
Order a hand-painted reproduction of The Cursed Woman
ByMuseum recreates The Cursed Woman by Octave Tassaert as a made-to-order oil painting on canvas. A skilled artist rebuilds the composition with individual brushwork and layered color, preserving the soft modeling, tonal transitions, and atmospheric quality that a flat printed image cannot reproduce.
Select the dimensions and presentation that suit your space. Your painting can be shipped rolled in a protective tube, gallery wrapped, or completed with an available frame.
- Painted by hand in oil on artist canvas
- Available in multiple sizes and framing options
- Made to order by a skilled reproduction artist
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