Nelson Shanks

Shanks depicted Renée Fleming in the title role of Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka, standing full-length in a green gown with flowing hair. The finished portrait hangs in the portrait gallery of the Metropolitan Opera, New York, where Fleming, the most accomplished living soprano, was the first woman in the Met’s history to solo headline an opening night gala. The present head study is more informal than the final portrait, and Fleming faces the viewer with a slight smile and appears to emerge from the unfinished background.