Although best known for her fashion work of the 1940s, Louise Dahl-Wolfe always preferred taking photographic portraits, which allowed her more flexibility. This is one of a series of portraits Dahl-Wolfe took for Harper's Bazaar of distinguished writers-also including W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and Eudora Welty-whose fiction the magazine published.

Colette (born Sidonie Gabrielle Colette) was one of France's best loved and most respected novelists. While the writer was seventy-eight years old and in poor health when this photograph was taken, Dahl-Wolfe clearly conveys Colette's lively intelligence, charm, and sense of style. Reclining in bed with a manuscript propped up on her knees, the author of Gigi still manages to look both elegant and dignified. Colette wears a fashionably tailored suit, and her right pinkie is raised as though in the middle of a tea party. Dahl-Wolfe creates an intimate ambience by photographing Colette in her Paris apartment, with a glimpse of the city visible beyond the balcony. The composition is dynamic because of the strong diagonal of the writer's torso, the curve of the background curtain, and the impression that Colette has just turned away from her work for a moment to acknowledge our presence in the room.

Famed as a perfectionist, Dahl-Wolfe always developed her own photographs. Her technical control is evident in the dramatic contrasts between black, white, and shades of gray and in the rich variety of textures that make this photograph so visually satisfying.