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Young Woman Drawing
Marie-Denise Villers · Rococo & Neoclassicism
- Artist
- Marie-Denise Villers (1774–1821)
- Date
- 1801
- Dimensions
- 161.3 x 128.6 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States
Young Woman Drawing shows a young woman in a simple white dress, seated by a window with a broken pane, her drawing board on her knees, looking up intently as if studying her model, who is the viewer.
A closer look
The light comes from behind her through the window, so that her face is in soft shadow while her golden hair and the white muslin glow at the edges. Through the cracked pane we glimpse a terrace where a couple strolls. The composition is calm and luminous, in the refined Neoclassical style of the circle of Jacques-Louis David. The sitter is probably Charlotte du Val d'Ognes or the painter's sister; she embodies the young women who trained as artists in Paris after the Revolution.