Provenance
Adrian Hope (1909); Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co, Paris, 1939; E. B. Greene; Adrian Hope (1909); (Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., Paris, 1939); E. B. Greene
Accession Number
1946.464
Medium
pastel
Dimensions
Unframed: 63.8 x 48.2 cm (25 1/8 x 19 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Gift of Edward B. Greene
Tags
Drawing Baroque (1600–1750) Pastel French Color: Brown
Background & Context
Background Story
Jacques-Charles Allais (active mid-18th century) was a French portrait painter known for his portraits of theatrical figures in the elegant manner of the mid-18th century French portrait tradition. Portrait of a French Actress from c. 1746 depicts a French actress in the elegant, Rococo manner that distinguishes the best French portraiture of the mid-18th century. The c. 1746 date places this in the most elegant period of French Rococo portraiture, when painters were producing the elegant, refined portraits that define the French Rococo.
Cultural Impact
Portrait of a French Actress is important in the context of 18th-century French portraiture because it demonstrates the elegant, Rococo manner of mid-18th-century French portrait painting. The portrait of a theatrical figure shows the French portrait tradition at its most elegant—the refined, Rococo manner that defines French portraiture of the period, and the theatrical subject allows the painter to combine elegant portraiture with the theatrical gesture that distinguishes Rococo portraiture from the more formal portraiture of other periods.
Why It Matters
Portrait of a French Actress is mid-18th-century French Rococo portraiture: a theatrical figure rendered in the elegant, refined manner that defines French portraiture of the period. The c. 1746 portrait shows the French portrait tradition at its most elegant, combining refined portraiture with theatrical gesture.
