Portrait of a woman seated in a landscape

Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767 - 1855)

British Museum

1793

The drawing shows a fashionably dressed woman in the politically correct attire of the Revolutionary period, a simple, Roman-inspired style that contrasted entirely with the excesses displayed during the ancien régime. The work is emblematic of its period and aesthetically not far removed from the best known portraits of the same era like Jacques-Louis David's 'Madame Récamier'. The British Museum has a small representation of French Neo-Classical drawings and this work significantly enhances it.

• Medium: chalk, graphite & gouache on paper
• Dimensions: 53.5 x 40cm
• Art Fund Grant: £21000 ( Total: £70,000)
• ArtFunded in: 2007
• Vendor: David Tunick Inc, New York

Provenance

Pisa-Drouot sale, Paris, 2003; Didier Aaron; David Tunick Inc, New York.

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