Portrait of a Woman, Said to be Madame Charles Simon Favart (Marie Justine Benoîte Duronceray, 1727–1772)
A woman in a teal dress turns from a keyboard to look at us: Drouais's portrait said to show Madame Favart, star of the Paris Opéra-Comique. Full commentary ↓
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Portrait of a Woman, Said to be Madame Charles Simon Favart (Marie Justine Benoîte Duronceray, 1727–1772) is an oil painting by François Hubert Drouais (1757) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 80 × 64.8 cm.
In the pictureA woman in a teal silk dress with white lace sleeves sits at a keyboard instrument and turns her head to look our way. Open sheet music rests on the music stand, and her hair, powdered gray, is dressed with a white ribbon. The background is a plain brown, which makes the color of the dress stand out.
BackgroundThe woman is said to be Marie-Justine Favart, a popular actress and singer at the Opéra-Comique in eighteenth-century Paris, but this has not been confirmed. Madame Favart, together with her playwright husband, helped develop French comic opera. Drouais liked to include props that pointed to a sitter's profession or pastimes, and the keyboard and sheet music are an example of that approach.
Puzzle tipIt divides into the teal dress, white lace, flesh tones, the brown background and the white paper of the music. Assemble the face and the sheet music first, and join the teal pieces of the dress along the bright lines of its folds. The white pieces of the lace sleeves have distinct shapes and are easy. 100 pieces is about right.
- Artist
- French, Paris 1727–1775 Paris
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 80 x 64.8 cm
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Isaac D. Fletcher Collection, Bequest of Isaac D. Fletcher, 1917
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
In these collections: Portrait and Self-Portrait Puzzles
Stories about this work
- From an Actress to a King's Daughter: Drouais's Women of 18th-Century Paris
François Hubert Drouais was the painter of choice for portraits of upper-class women in 18th-century Paris. The portrait conventions of the day, read through four of his portraits of women.
