Portrait of a Young Woman (Portrait de jeune femme)
Portrait of a Young Woman (Portrait de jeune femme)
About This Work
Provenance
Juliette Courbet (1831–1915). [Possibly Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, after 1915?]. Robert Lebel (1901–1986), Paris. Sylvia Keefe, New York. Henry Pearlman, by 1945; Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation, 1979.
Conservator's Note
Courbet apparently did not feel the need to complete the bottom part of this head study, where the preparatory cream-colored layer is exposed.
Critical Perspective
Painted when Courbet was studying in Paris and making his living as a portraitist, this work has traditionally been identified as a portrait of one of the artist’s sisters, who all frequently modeled for their brother, but no documentation has been found to support this. The pale face emerging from a dark background reflects Courbet’s fascination with Rembrandt in the years between his arrival in Paris in 1839 and his trip to the Netherlands in 1846.