About This Artwork

Jacques Louis David
French, 1748–1825

Madame François Buron, 1769

Oil on canvas
26 1/8 x 21 7/8 in. (66.3 x 55.5 cm)
J.L. David 1769 (at right, above sitter's shoulder)
Restricted gift of Mrs. Albert J. Beveridge in memory of her mother, Abby Louise Spencer (Mrs. Augustus Eddy)., 1963.205

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Paris, Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Petit Palais), David et ses éleves, 1913, cat. no. 2.

New York, Wildenstein and Co., Fashion in Headdress, 1450-1943, 1943, no. 53.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Spirit of Modern France: An Essay on Painting in Society, 1745-1946, 1946-47, cat. no. 10, traveled to Toronto.

London, Tate Gallery, David, 1748-1825, 1948, cat. no. 1, traveled to Manchester.

New York, Wildenstein and Co., French Painting of the Eighteenth Century, 1948, cat. no. 8.

Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, David: Exposition en l’honneur du deuxième centenaire de sa naissance, 1948, cat. no. M. O. 1.

New Orleans, Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, Masterpieces of French Painting through Five Centuries, 1400-1900, 1953-54, cat. no. 50.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Age of Louis XV: French Painting, 1710-1774, 1975-76, cat. no. 24, traveled to Chicago and Ottawa.

Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Selected Works of Eighteenth-Century French Art in the Collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, 1976, cat. no. 16.

Paris, Musée du Louvre, and Versailles, Musée National du Château, Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825, 1989-90, cat. no. 3.

Publication History

E[dme] F[rançois] M[arie] Miel, “David,” Le Plutarque français, vies des hommes et femmes illustres de la France, avec leurs portraits en pied, vol. 7, Paris, 1840, p. 3.

J. L. Jules David, Le Peintre Louis David, 1748-1825: Souvenirs et documents inédits, Paris, 1880, pp. 7, 631.

Paul Marmottan, L’Ecole française de peinture (1789-1830), Paris, 1886, p. 368.

Charles Saunier, Louis David, Paris, [1903], p. 12.

“La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité,” Gazette des Beaux Arts 3rd ser., 33 (1905), suppl. no. 24, p. 200.

Prosper Dorbec, “David portraitiste,” Gazette des Beaux Arts 3rd ser., 37 (1907), pp. 308-09 (ill.).

N. Péreire, in “Séance du 3 Mai 1907,” Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de l’art français (1907), pp. 49-50.

Camille Gronkowski, “David et ses éleves at the Petit Palais – I,” Burlington Magazine 23 (1913), p. 78.

Leon Rosenthal, “L’Exposition de David et de ses élèves au Petit Palais,” La Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 33 (1913), p. 338.

Charles Saunier, “David et son ècole au Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris,” Gazette des Beaux Arts 4th ser., 9 (1913), p. 273.

Robert de la Sizeranne, “À l’Exposition David: L’Instinct et l’intelligence chez l’artiste,” Revue des deux mondes 15 (1913), p. 90.

Gabriel Henriot, Collection David-Weill, Paris, 1926, vol. I, Peintures, p. 59.

Richard Cantinelli, Jacques-Louis David, 1748-1825, Paris and Brussels, 1930, p. 8, no. 3.

Klaus Holma, David: Son Evolution et son style, Paris, 1940, pp. 21, 111 n. 5, 125, no. 2.

Jorge Romero Brest, Jacques Louis David, Buenos Aires, 1943, p. 11.

Douglas Cooper, “Jacques-Louis David: A Bi-Centenary Exhibition,” Burlington Magazine 90 (1948), p. 277.

David Lloyd Dowd, Pageant-Master of the Republic: Jacques-Louis David and the French Revolution, University of Nebraska Studies, Lincoln, 1948, p. 7, pl. III.

Philippe Huisman, “Au Musée de l’Orangerie: J.-L. David, 1748-1825,” Arts 172 (25 June 1948), n. pag. (ill.).

Louis Hautecoeur, Louis David, Paris, 1954, pp. 24-25, 286.

“Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, April – June 1963,” Art Quarterly 26 (1963), pp. 358 (ill.), 363.

“La Chronique des Arts,” Gazette des Beaux Arts, 6th ser., 63 (1964), suppl. to no. 1141, p. 61, fig. 207.

Jacques Wilhelm, “David et ses portraits,” Art de France 4 (1964), p. 163.

John Maxon, “Some recent Acquisitions,” Apollo 84 (1966), p. 221, pl.VIII.

John Maxon, “J. L. David’s Portrait of the Marquise de Pastoret,” Art News 66, 7 (1967), p. 46, fig. 6.

John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago, London, 1970, p. 262 (ill).

J[ohn] M[axon], “Mrs. Morton’s Bequest,” Art Institute of Chicago Calendar 64, 1 (1970), n. pag.

René Verbraeken, Jacques-Louis David jugé par ses contemporains et par la postérité, Paris, 1973, pp. 23, 106, 248.

John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 96.

Anita Brookner, Jacques-Louis David, London, 1980, pp. 42-43, 169, fig. 5.

Antoine Schnapper, David: Témoin de son temps, Fribourg, 1980, pp. 27-29, fig. 7.

Hans Körner and Friedrich Piel, “‘À Mon Ami A. Quatremère de Quincy’: Ein unbekanntes Werk Jacques-Louis Davids aus dem jahre 1779,” Pantheon 43 (1985), p. 93, fig. 8.

Luc de Nanteuil, Jacques-Louis David, New York, 1985, p. 11, fig. 6.

Antoine Schnapper in 1770-1830: Autour du néo-classicisme en Belgique, exh. cat., Musée Communal des Beaux-Arts d’Ixelles, 1985-86, p. 28

Lorenz Eitner, An Outline of 19th-Century European Painting: From David through Cézanne, vol. 1, New York, 1987, pp. 17-18.

Philippe Bordes, David, Paris, 1988, p. 8 (ill.).

Régis Michel and Marie Catherine Sahut, David: L’Art et la politique, Paris, 1988, p. 12 (ill).

Jean Jacques Lévêque, La Vie et l’oeuvre de Jacques-Louis David, Paris, 1989, pp. 20, 22 (ill.).

John McEwen, “Paint and Politics,” Country Life 183, 47 (1989), p. 66.

Bernard Nöel, L. David, New York, 1989, p. 93.

Antoine Schnapper in David, special issue of Connaissance des arts (1989), p. 8, fig. 2.

“La Chronique des arts: Musées, monuments historiques, expositions,” Gazette des Beaux Arts 6th ser., 132 (1990), suppl. to no. 1453, p. 1, fig. 1.

Barbara Scott, “Letter from Paris: David’s Portraits,” Apollo 131 (1990), p. 115, fig. 1.

Paul Spencer-Longhurst, “State of the Art David,” Apollo 131 (1990), p. 106.

Maxine Schur, The Reading Woman: A Journal, Rohnert Park, Calif., 1991, p. 87 (ill).

Christopher Wright, The World’s Master Paintings from the Early Renaissance to the Present Day: A Comprehensive Listing of Works by 1,300 Painters and a Complete Guide to Their Locations Worldwide, New York, 1991, vol. 1, p. 437, vol. 2, p. 62.

Susan Wise in Malcolm Warner and Susan Wise, French and British paintings from 1600 to 1800 in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection, Chicago, 1996, pp. 35-9, ill.

Ownership History

Probably in the sitter’s possession [for the descent of this portrait and the companion portrait of François Buron, see Schnapper in Paris1989-90, p. 44, under no. 2]; probably by descent to her daughter, Marie François Buron, who married François Charles Seigneur; probably by descent to their daughter, Alexandrine Marie Louise, who married Charles François Baudry; probably by descent to their son, A. Baudry, and his wife (both d. 1903), by 1879; probably in 1903 to Mme Baudry’s brother, M. Dussault (or Dussaud), and his wife [according to London 1948 and Péreire 1907]; presumably by descent to M. Regnault, a family member, Paris, until 1925; offered for sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 22 June 1905, no. 2 (ill.), bought in; sold by Regnault to Wildenstein, Paris in 1925; transferred from Wildenstein, Paris, on 22 March 1939; inventoried in Wildenstein, New York, stock on 27 February 1940 [acc.to Ay-Whang Hsia of Wildenstein, conversation with Martha Wolff 4 November 2003, note in curatorial file]; sold by Wildenstein to the Art Institute, 1963.