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Madame de Pastoret and Her Son

Large painting of young woman in white dress sitting next to crib.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • Large painting of young woman in white dress sitting next to crib.

Date:

1791–92

Artist:

Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825)

About this artwork

The volatile events of the early years of the French Revolution make it impossible to determine with certainty the date of Jacques-Louis David’s warm, fresh portrait of Adélaïde de Pastoret. They also probably account for the portrait’s unfinished state. David, a renowned Neoclassical painter, was at the time an ardent revolutionary; Madame de Pastoret was the wife of a staunch royalist. The sittings must have occurred after the birth, early in 1791, of her son, who is portrayed asleep by her side, and before her brief imprisonment during the Reign of Terror in 1792. Here David completed the stippled, almost monochromatic underpainting but did not create the stark, enamel-smooth surface that is characteristic of his finished paintings. He did not even get far enough to place a needle and thread in Madame de Pastoret’s hand. Nevertheless, this large portrait of unaffected domesticity captures the youthful mother with charm as well as dignity and displays David’s skill as a portraitist. Objecting to David’s revolutionary ideals, Madame de Pastoret (who became the Marquise de Pastoret in 1817) refused the painting during the artist’s lifetime. After David’s death, she had her son, by then an adult, purchase the portrait from the artist’s estate.

Status

On View, Gallery 218

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Jacques Louis David

Title

Madame de Pastoret and Her Son

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1791–1792

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

129.8 × 96.6 cm (51 1/8 × 38 in.); French: 156.3 × 123.6 cm (61 1/2 × 48 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Clyde M. Carr Fund and Major Acquisitions Endowment

Reference Number

1967.228

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/27307/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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