Portrait of Mademoiselle Ledieu
Medium
Lithograph; first state of two
Dimensions
Sheet: 13 3/4 × 10 1/4 in. (35 × 26 cm) Image: 5 15/16 × 4 3/4 in. (15.1 × 12 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1922
Accession Number
22.18.1
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jean-Baptiste Isabey’s *Portrait of Mademoiselle Ledieu* captures the quiet elegance of early nineteenth-century French portraiture. Created in 1820, the work presents a young woman in a delicate, intimate study that reflects the period’s interest in personal character and refined expression. As a leading court artist who had served both Napoleon and the restored Bourbon monarchy, Isabey brought his celebrated skill for likeness and grace to the emerging medium of lithography. This print is notable as the first state of two, offering viewers a rare glimpse into the artist’s working process. L...
About the Artist
Jean-Baptiste Isabey · 1767–1855
Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767–1855) was a French painter and miniaturist whose extraordinary longevity and adaptability allowed him to serve as the preeminent portraitist of successive French regimes — from the court of Louis XVI through the Revolution, the Napoleonic Empire, the Restoration, and into the July Monarchy — making his career an almost unparalleled chronicle of French political and socia...