Madame Henri François Riesener (Félicité Longrois, 1786–1847)
Portrait of a middle-aged woman in a lace bonnet: Delacroix's family portrait of his aunt, the mother of the painter Léon Riesener. Full commentary ↓
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Madame Henri François Riesener (Félicité Longrois, 1786–1847) is an oil painting by Eugène Delacroix (1835) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 74.3 × 60.3 cm.
In the pictureA woman in a white lace bonnet sits with her body turned slightly and looks out at us. Black curls escape from under the bonnet; she wears a white ruffled collar at her neck, a striped shawl over her shoulders, and a dress of deep purple. The background is a dark brown, so the white bonnet and the face are the first things you notice.
BackgroundFélicité Longrois was the wife of the painter Henri François Riesener, who was Delacroix's maternal uncle. The painting is therefore a family portrait of the artist's aunt, and her son Léon Riesener was a painter and a cousin who was close to Delacroix. Unlike a commissioned portrait, it has little embellishment, and the way the wrinkles and fullness of the face are painted just as they are gives it a sense of intimacy.
Puzzle tipFit the pieces of the white bonnet and collar by following the direction of the lace folds, and find the face pieces first, since there are only a few. The dark background and the purple dress are close in color and easy to confuse; tell them apart by the sheen of brushwork on the dress against the flat background. The striped shawl pieces make good landmarks.
- Artist
- French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 74.3 x 60.3 cm
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1994
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- The Bible, Shakespeare and a Friend's Garden: Five Paintings by Delacroix
This site has five works by Delacroix but not a single post devoted to the painter. Here the five scattered paintings are brought together in one place.
- Why It Pays to Do the Face Last in a Portrait Puzzle
The face takes up only 3 to 4% of the picture, so it pays to do it last. Where each portrait gets stuck, and how to find an eye split across two pieces.
