SEATTLE — The woman in the painting by the French artist Jean-Pierre Cassigneul that greeted visitors as they entered the Seattle Art Fair last week looked confident, rich and perhaps a bit bored, accustomed to getting her way without needing to try very hard. She sat, staring straight into the viewer’s eyes, languid hand to her chin, eye shadow matching the emerald green of the sea behind her. The cut of her clothing, and her elaborate hat, said that in her world it was cocktail hour, around 1927.

The prominent placement was no coincidence.

“Images of strong females sell easily,” said William Rau, the president of M.S. Rau Antiques, a New Orleans-based gallery that had staked out a position by the door and positioned the $198,500 piece front and center. He said that more female art buyers are out buying, and they are responding, as are men, he added, to art showing women in charge. “Whether that’s a ‘me too’ connection or just female equality, I can’t answer,” he added.