A slightly smaller, nearly identical version of the composition exhibited at the Salon of 1879, After the Ball (Retour du Bal) captures the aftermath of a night of revelry gone wrong.

Gervex revealed the composition to the public just one year after his famously scandalizing bedroom scene inspired by the Alfred de Musset poem, Rolla, was rejected by the Salon Jury of 1878. Albeit less ostensibly provocative, After the Ball adopts the former composition’s themes of love, betrayal, and despair.

At its heart, the composition captures a moment of palpable tension between its two subjects: a young woman in an elaborate ball gown and her older, more somberly dressed male companion. The young woman leans into the end of a fauteuil, burying her head into her arms, visibly withdrawn from the gentleman who, in turn, gazes ahead of him while mechanically removing his gloves. He is seemingly detached yet implicated in the emotional turmoil.

Details – such as a carelessly thrown bouquet in the right foreground (recalling the abandoned corset in the right foreground of Rolla)—imbue the scene with psychological tension, prompting the viewer to try and construct a story about the earlier events of the night.

The artist's painterly technique heightens this drama. Soft ambient light emanating from a rose-shaded lamp at left (curiously similar to the lamp on the nightstand in Rolla) casts shadows that add intimacy to the atmosphere and emphasize the contrast between the woman's pastel silk gown and the man's harsh black attire. The lamp also illuminates the crumpled folds of the man's suit shoulders and thinning hairline, evoking his exhaustion. It remains uncertain whether is gaze is directed at the viewer or somewhere else far off in the distance.

The present work bears small, though significant, differences from the final version. In the latter version, the woman is depicted with a more elaborate hairstyle with an even more luxurious costume and jewelry. These changes would have elevated the woman’s social status, reinforcing the subject matter’s respectability and in turn shedding some of the intriguing parallels to Rolla in the present original work.