Portrait of Madame Reiset

Portrait of Madame Reiset
Artist	Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson
Year	1823
Type	Oil on canvas, portrait painting
Dimensions	60.3 cm × 49.5 cm (23.7 in × 19.5 in)
Location	Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Portrait of Madame Reiset is an 1823 portrait painting by the French artist Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson. It depicts Colette-Désirée-Thérèse Godefroy (1782-1850) the wife of Jacques de Reiset a French government official of the Restoration era. She was the mother of Frédéric Reiset, the art collector and curator at the Louvre.^[1]

It reflects the Neoclassical influence of the artist's mentor Jacques-Louis David as well as his interest in Florentine Renaissance art.^[2] The sitter had originally wanted to be painted in full-length but Girodet persuaded her this half-length would be better. She chose to wear a velour dress.^[3] It was one of the final portraits produced by the artist before his death the following year. It was exhibited at the Salon of 1824 in Paris.^[4] Today it is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.^[5]

References

1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438389
2. Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800-1920, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007 p.8
3. Noon & Bann p.185
4. Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800-1920, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007 p.8
5. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438389

Bibliography

• Noon, Patrick & Bann, Stephen. Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics. Tate, 2003.