Ladies with a Gentleman in a Top Hat (1888). Julius LeBlanc Stewart (French, Realism, 1855-1919). Oil on canvas.
The gentleman, said to be Comte Ludovic Napoleon Lepic (1839-1889), is conversing with two ladies in a gallery, possibly at the Paris Salon of 1888. Ludovic Lepic was quite the renaissance man, many-talented and much-liked. An artist in his own right, he studied under Cabanel and Gleyre.