The Beautiful Greek Woman
Nicolas Lancret·1731–36
Historical Context
Nicolas Lancret's Beautiful Greek Woman (1731–36) belongs to the fête galante tradition established by Watteau, depicting an elegantly costumed woman in a garden setting that is simultaneously real and theatrical. Lancret was Watteau's most commercially successful follower, adapting the master's style into a slightly more decorative and accessible mode that appealed to the French aristocracy's taste for graceful entertainment. The 'Greek' costume suggests the period's fashionable Orientalism, which dressed Europeans in exotic garments without any authentic ethnographic intent. Lancret was a regular contributor to French royal interiors and Versailles commissions, producing decorative paintings that defined the visual culture of the French aristocracy through the reign of Louis XV.
Technical Analysis
Lancret's technique reflects Watteau's influence with its fluid brushwork, luminous color, and atmospheric landscape setting. The figure is rendered with decorative elegance and attention to the exotic costume, while the garden background is painted with feathery, atmospheric strokes characteristic of the fête galante tradition.
Provenance
Charles Fox, Rutland, England, probably by 1847 [based on the exhibition history of its likely pendant, The Amorous Turk, belonging to the Sarah Blaffer Campbell Foundation, Houston, see Wise 1996]; probably sold 1849 [according to labels formerly on the back of the painting, now in curatorial file]. E. Gimpel and Wildenstein, New York, by 1920 [according to another label formerly on the back of the painting, now in curatorial file]; sold to Delia Spencer Caton, Mrs. Marshall Field I, Washington, D.C., by 1920 (died 1937); by descent to her niece, Mrs. Albert J. Beveridge, [according to letters in Art Institute archives]; given to the Art Institute, 1948.
