Portrait of a Young Woman

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.