Le Chagrin François Clément Sommier, known as Henry Somm, was one of the leading figures of late 19th-century Parisian life, a friend of Degas, Renoir, Manet, and especially of Toulouse-Lautrec, who immortalized him in a splendid etching. He is credited with an endless series of portraits of young Parisian women, all painted from life and caught in the daily routine of their walks in the Paris of the Belle Époque. His watercolors are a unique visual document and demonstrate the great skill of Henry Somm's hand. On display here, there is a pastel, La lettre or Le Chagrin. A half-naked young woman lies distraught on the shoulder of her chaise longue holding a letter, undoubtedly a harbinger of bad news. This work, considered one of Henry Somm's masterpieces, testifies to his great skills as a draughtsman, able to compete with the great pastel masters such as Degas, who held him in high esteem. Very popular at the time for his illustrations and cartoons published in the satirical magazines of the time, Henry Somm is one of the artists yet to be rediscovered by the general public, and the masterpiece work exhibited here is an example of how much more there is to be uncovered around the legend of the Impressionists.