Ernest-Jean Delahaye: Mademoiselle Fifi
As described on the frame plaque, this painting illustrates a pivotal moment in Guy de Maupassant’s short story, Mademoiselle Fifi (1822), set during the Franco Prussian War. A group of German officers lodged far away from the fighting in a chateau in Normandy have become exceedingly bored after days of drinking, gambling, and destroying paintings. Thus, the Captain—whose soldiers have nicknamed “Mademoiselle Fifi”—arranges for women to entertain his fellow comrades at a dinner party. After an evening of “Fifi” and his officers praising German military power and disparaging France and its women, Rachel rebukes him. As he lifts his hand, she swiftly and fatally stabs “Mademoiselle Fifi” with a dessert knife without anyone noticing—the dramatic moment captured in the present work. The story continues with her jumping out of a window and running to a nearby church where she rings its bell until the day of armistice, signaling her own victory over the Germans. [Sotheby's]
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