The sitter was Irene Beran, an opera singer and femme fatale, who was married to the painter Bruno Beran. She was an acquaintance of Tolstoy, D'Annunzio and Kokoschka and became a collector of avant-garde pictures (see Rafael Perello Paradelo, Ayer et hoy del pintos, Bruno Beran, Palma, 1979, pp.26-8).