Despite a nameplate that suggests the sitter in the present work is famed French actress Sarah Bernhardt, this painting relates directly to a small oil sketch by the artist of his wife, Julie Hierl-Deronco, sitting at a tea table in a flowing white dress within an elegantly decorated interior (Norbert Hierl-Deronco, Otto Barone Hierl-Deronco, Munich, 1993, p. 97, illustrated on cover).