This is Madame Rimsky-Korsakov by Franz Xavier Winterhalter. She was the aunt of the famous composer. Most people assume she was his wife which leads them to believe that he led a happier life than he did. The original is in the Musee' D'Orsay in Paris. I have a 2/3 scale reproduction which is itself huge.

A friend of mine, who writes under the name of James Kaye discovered the identity of the model for this and most of John William Waterhouse's best-known works. He wrote a novel about her entitled Murielle which is available at Amazon.com and other places.

It seems like all my favorite public domain arty pictures of women have them either with too few clothes or a yard of hair. I guess it's appropriate since hair loss was such a big concern on the class reunion survey.