3-097-673 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

La Boulonnaise, 1922. Portrait of a fisherwoman from the Boulogne region in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France. She wears the traditional festive costume of the region. These women, known as matelotes or verotières, were fisherwomen, shellfish gatherers, and also helped unload the catch. The figure's crowning with the circular headdress, the so-called bonnet soleil, a starched and stiffened white lace cap, lends it a distinctive appearance, as if it were a halo. The shape of the headdress is echoed in the flowers of the shawl, amplifying an essentially feminine suggestion linked to its striking circularity. She poses confidently with arms akimbo, her face framed by long, clustered earrings, called milanos or dorlots.