''Jeune fille en buste'' (Portrait of the young girl) is a work by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin painted in 1794 and exhibited at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Background

One of Guérin's early works, the painting treats the subject in a frank and direct way. It is a portrait of a young girl, depicted while covering her breasts with both hands. The smooth background, simplicity of the design and the use of the measured color are characteristic of the

neo-classical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

and of the school of

Jean-Baptiste Regnault Jean-Baptiste Regnault (9 October 1754 – 12 November 1829) was a French painter. Biography Regnault was born in Paris, and began life at sea in a merchant vessel. At the age of fifteen his talent attracted attention, and he was sent to I ...

and Jacques-Louis David. The work was acquired by the Louvre in 1978. The girl's short hair is inspired by the "Titus style model" (french:

à la Titus Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism wa ...

), popular in France at the time and based on the hairstyle of the Roman era. In fact, the work is one of the first paintings to depict this hairstyle. The style may have taken its name from Titus Junius Brutus, son of the Roman politician Lucius Junius Brutus. Mary Novik's debut novel, ''

Conceit An extended metaphor, also known as a conceit or sustained metaphor, is the use of a single metaphor or analogy at length in a work of literature. It differs from a mere metaphor in its length, and in having more than one single point of contact bet ...

'' used the image for the cover of the book.

References

External links

* {{18C-painting-stub 1794 paintings Paintings in the Louvre by French artists Women in art Neoclassical paintings