Day 408 - Two 18th century French women


 




March 31, 2025

I think it must be quite hard to write the introductory signage for these 18th century French galleries, which contain lots of portraits, some paintings on set themes (a woman reads a love letter, e.g.), some outdoor scenes, and so on. The curator(s) seems to have taken the approach of describing culture in general and its relationship to art in particular.  Gallery 631's sign bears the headline "Urban Luxuries," noting that arts patrons were leaving the royal court at Versailles for well-appointed Parisian townhouses.

Presumably the two portraits that are the subjects of today's entry graced these residences. I selected Jean Honore' Fragonard's portrait of Marie Emilie Coignet de Courson, an aristocratic salon hostess, with her dog because I find it utterly charming.  In the painting (which measures, I would guess, 38 inches high and 32 inches wide), Mme. and the little dog she holds are basically shown is profile from below the waist up, but she turns her head to look directly at the viewer. Aside from her carefully-modeled face, Fragonard's brushwork is loose, but he ably captures the luxurious fabric of her dress, the fine pleats of her ruff, and the luminous pearls in her choker and hair ornament, as well as the dog's fluffy tail. The figures are in shades of white, rose (Madame de Courson's gown,  her cheeks and lips), and teal, all against a beige ground. An especially winsome note is that the teal ribbon that encircles the dog's neck and drapes over her arm is the same color as a panel of Madame's dress. It's a flattering likeness: According to the caption, the subject was 53 when she posed for Fragonard in 1769. (Did she live until the Revolution, I wonder? Was she guillotined?)

The second portrait, by Joseph Siffred Duplessis, is of a much younger subject -  Madame de Saint-Marys was 34 when Duplessis painted her  iin 1776 - but I think her plumpness makes her look considerably older.  (But how nice that women of size married well- Madame de Saint-Marys' husband was a major patron of the arts.) In the painting, which measures perhaps 46 inches high and 34 inches wide, the subject is seated against a dark ground, and her elaborately coiffed hair is also dark.  Otherwise, everything is pastel pink   I love the way Duplessis careful brushwork has captured the fine pattern of the lacy flowing top she wears.

Both of these ladies certainly knew how to apply blush!

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