Exhibited by French artist Sophie Fremiet (later Rude) at the Brussels Salon of 1818, her public debut, this large-scale painting established Fremiet as a professional portraitist and highlighted her particular skill in rendering different fabrics and materials. A poised young fair-skinned woman with cascading ringlets of dark hair sits before us in a tastefully appointed interior. She is fashionably dressed in a dark blue silk dress trimmed with lace, deep orange cashmere shawl, and ornate pearl jewelry. The fan in her left hand and the opera glass and sheer, feathered bonnet on the table beside her hints at a stimulating evening out at the theater. Possibly depicting a fellow French émigré, Portrait of a Woman shows how thoroughly Fremiet had assimilated the late neoclassical manner of Jacques-Louis David, her teacher in Brussels and arguably the most celebrated painter in Europe at the time. David recognized Fremiet’s talents early on, entrusting her to copy some of his famous works from this period, including The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis. Sophie was understandably proud that her work could be confused with that of her master, writing on December 21, 1823 to her friend Cécile Moyne that almost everyone who did not know her believed her La Belle Anthia to have been painted by David. She also commented with some surprise that her master was claimed as the painter of her portrait of the actor Bernard Wolff (1822, Paris, Louvre) by the sitter himself. Jessica Cresseveur has described this as a manifestation of gender bias, although it is evident that at the time Sophie perceived it as a tribute to her talent. Sophie never lost her admiration for David and even at the last Salon in which she exhibited, in 1867, described herself as élève de David. Nonetheless, despite her close relationship with the artist, she was not invited to join the committee organized by his male students to manage his funeral and the erection of a monument to his memory.
Portrait of a Woman by Sophie Fremiet (French) - Oil on canvas / 1818 - Getty Center (Los Angeles, California) #womeninart #art #womanartist #femaleartist #womensart #SophieFremiet #SophieRude #portraitofawoman #GettyCenter #GettyMuseum #neoclassicism #ArtText #Herstory #FrenchArtist #Fremiet #style
