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A young woman sits in three quarter profile wearing a white dress

A young woman looks directly at us with a calm gaze, as she sits turned toward the left, in front of an empty green-gray background. She has pale skin, rosy cheeks, and brown hair that emerges from a white head scarf. She wears a white dress with short sleeves, a low V-neck and a slim white cord that gathers the dress at the middle. Her hands rest in her lap, holding a burnt orange scarf. Soft bright light shines on her from the left, and behind her at right we see the back of her wooden chair.

Gallery Text

This work exemplifies both portrait conventions and fashions of 1790s France. It displays the characteristics of Jacques-Louis David’s famous portraits of the decade: the sitter’s head is turned to confront the viewer, and the subject is presented in relief against an empty background. Her white muslin dress, a model inspired by antiquity, was ubiquitous in women’s wardrobes of the period, as was the type of scarf in her lap. Her knotted kerchief, known as a fichu à la Marat, was named after the revolutionary journalist Jean-Paul Marat, whose martyrdom David commemorated in a famous painting (1793). Strips of canvas were added to all four sides of this portrait, which suggests that it could have been cut out of a larger composition.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.227
People
Circle of Jacques-Louis David, French (Paris 1748 - 1825 Brussels)
Title
Portrait of a Young Woman
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Jeune Fille
Alternate Title: Portrait of a Girl in a White Dress Holding a Yellow Scarf / Girl in a White Dress / Portrait of a Young Girl
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1800
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230042

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2220, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, Rococo and Neoclassicism in the Eighteenth Century
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
75.6 x 57.5 cm (29 3/4 x 22 5/8 in.)
framed: 92.4 x 74.9 x 7.6 cm (36 3/8 x 29 1/2 x 3 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[E. F. Bonaventure Art Galleries, New York], sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, April 3, 1903, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.227
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • "List of Loans, April 20 to May 20, 1911", Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (June 1911), 6, pp. 142-143, p. 143
  • [Reproduction only], "French Painting", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, November 1943)., repr. in b/w p. 58
  • "Winthrop Collection Goes to Fogg", Art Digest (November 1, 1943), p. 8, repr.
  • Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, Jades, Paintings and Drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art; selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1943), p. 3
  • "Sixteen Reproductions", Harvard Alumni Bulletin (Cambridge, MA, January 8, 1944), vol. XLVI, pp. 217-20, repr. in color
  • [Reproduction only], Art News, (January 1, 1944 - January 14, 1944)., repr., p. 8
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 104; repr. as no. 260
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), no. 23, pp. 94-95, repr. in color
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 23, pp. 102-103, repr. in color
  • Yuriko Jackall and Philippe Bordes, America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art/Lund Humphries Publishers (Washington, DC, 2017), p. 104

Exhibition History

  • Unidentified Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1911, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 04/29/1911 - 03/06/1912
  • Chinese sculpture, bronzes, jades, paintings and drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art : selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/01/1943 - 02/28/1944
  • France and the Portrait, 1799-1870, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/03/1994 - 01/29/2002
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu