Portrait of a Woman (1835, retouched by the artist in 1843): Art, History and Details

Portrait of a Woman (1835, retouched by the artist in 1843) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean-Baptiste Isabey (French, 1767–1855).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

French court artist Isabey was accustomed to painting royalty, but here he uses his delicate stipple technique to portray a simply dressed young woman with her books and writing implements. Her sensitivity to the whims of fashion is evident in the fact that eight years after painting her portrait the artist replaced her no longer fashionable “Apollo’s knot” hairstyle with ringlets and added gauzy sleeves to her gown.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of a Woman
• Date: 1835, retouched by the artist in 1843
• Creator attribution: Jean-Baptiste Isabey (French, 1767–1855)
• Type: Portrait Miniature
• Technique: Watercolor on vellum
• Dimensions: Overall: 12.3 x 17.4 cm (4 13/16 x 6 7/8 in.)
• Collection: P - French 18th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2018.6

Collection credit

Jo Hershey Selden Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.