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Portrait of a Young Woman
Marie-Geneviève Navarre1774/1774
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Washington, D.C., United States
Critics praised Marie-Geneviève Navarre for her keen skill working in pastels; this delicate portrait of a young woman exemplifies her talents.
Likely a member of the working class, the woman occupies a modest wooden chair. She is simply but neatly attired, her direct gaze framed by a white bonnet. The sitter's crossed arms suggest a certain self-consciousness with posing for her portrait, but her slight smile may hint that she knows the artist who has requested her patience.
In the able hands of Navarre, the pastel medium allows for subtle shifts of color and realistic fleshtones that enhance the work's appealing naturalism.
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Details
- Title: Portrait of a Young Woman
- Creator: Marie-Geneviève Navarre
- Creator Lifespan: 1737/1795
- Creator Gender: Female
- Creator Death Place: Paris, France
- Creator Birth Place: Paris, France
- Date: 1774/1774
- selected exhibition history: Le Salon, Académie de Saint-Luc, Paris, 1762
- artist profile: Marie-Geneviève Navarre’s ability to create compelling pastel portraits earned her recognition among the most esteemed pastelists of the 18th century. Pastel portraiture had been made fashionable in France by Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian artist who created society portraits for the Paris elite in 1720 and 1721. Navarre gained prominence in this medium: her pastel portraits are appreciated for their skill, realism, and warmth. Navarre distinctively rendered her subjects through animated line-work. As a female artist under male instruction (her teacher was Maurice Quentin de la Tour), Navarre was praised for the excellence of her work, which she executed entirely without help. She also worked as a copyist, studying existing works of art and creating replicas. Navarre exhibited her work at the Hotel d’Aligre in the Rue St. Honoré in 1762 and 1764, and she exhibited in 1774 at the Salon de la Correspondence with another student of la Tour, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. Because women artists were seldom represented in the prestigious Académie Royale, they often sought acceptance in the Académie de Saint-Luc, whose membership of 4,500 artists included 130 women. It was in this Académie that Navarre exhibited her work in 1762, 1764, and 1774. Both her paintings and drawings were accepted to this impressive venue, but Navarre’s highly praised pastels were considered superior to her oil paintings.
- Style: Neoclassicism
- Physical Dimensions: w19.75 x h24 in (Without frame)
- Type: Pastel
- Rights: Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; Photography by Lee Stalsworth
- External Link: National Museum of Women in the Arts
- Medium: Pastel on paper
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