Portrait of a Young Lady
c. 1820
Medium
Lithograph in black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 13.3 × 9.3 cm (5 1/4 × 3 11/16 in.); Sheet: 26.8 × 15.9 cm (10 9/16 × 6 5/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
39568
Art Historical Context
Dominique-Vivant Denon, a multifaceted French artist, diplomat, and director of the Louvre under Napoleon Bonaparte, created this delicate *Portrait of a Young Lady* around 1820. Rendered as a lithograph in black ink on cream wove paper, the intimate image measures just 13.3 × 9.3 cm, capturing the subject's poised elegance with fine lines and subtle shading. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department, it exemplifies Denon's versatility beyond his famous Egyptian expedition illustrations. Lithography, a revolutionary printing technique invented just two decades ea...
About the Artist
Dominique-Vivant Denon · 1747–1825
Dominique-Vivant Denon (1747–1825) was a French artist, diplomat, archaeologist, and museum administrator who became the first director of the Musée du Louvre — a role that earned him the title of "the father of all museums." Born Baron Vivant de Non in Chalon-sur-Saône, Burgundy, he was educated for a career in diplomacy and served under Louis XV and Louis XVI as a gentleman of the court and as a...