The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles announced last week that it has acquired a work by the 19th-century French painter Sophie Frémiet—the first by the artist to join a US museum’s collection. Portrait of a Woman (1818) is now on view at the Getty Center’s South Pavilion.
The Neo-Classical painting depicts a young, upper-class woman in a blue dress and orange shawl seated at a table where she appears to have just left her feathered hat and opera glasses. Scholars contend that this portrait was one of two the artist exhibited at age 21 in her first show at the 1818 Salon in Brussels. At roughly the same time, Frémiet’s teacher Jacques-Louis David asked her to paint a copy of his then-new The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis (also owned by the Getty); David is said to have been very pleased with the result and could hardly distinguish Frémiet’s version from his original. Fellow artists would call Frémiet’s talent equal to that of a man—high praise at the time.
“Largely overshadowed by her famous sculptor husband, François Rude, Frémiet has not received the international credit she deserves,” Davide Gasparotto, senior curator of paintings at the Getty, said in a statement. “Portrait of a Woman … will be a superb addition to our collection of Neo-Classical art, which is already strong in the work of [Jacques-Louis] David. I expect it will be popular with our visitors on account of its attractive subject, skillful handling and truly impressive size and scale.”
Portrait of a Woman is now on view and accompanied by three David paintings from the Getty’s collection: the aforementioned Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis, Portrait of Suzanne Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau (1804) and Portrait of the Sisters Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte (1821).
