JEANNE-PHILIBERTE LEDOUX (PARIS 1767-1840 BELLEVILLE)

Jeanne-Philiberte Ledoux was one of the leading female artists of the revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. Daughter of the celebrated architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806), she entered the studio of Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) to train as a painter at a time when few women dared venture into a public profession. She drew inspiration for her own paintings from the works popularised by her master, principally producing head studies of beautiful young women and children. This intimate portrait is characteristic of Ledoux’s ‘expressive heads’, which she exhibited to considerable success in the Paris Salons from 1793 until 1819.