Madame François Buron
Jacques Louis David·1769
Historical Context
David's Madame François Buron from 1769 is a relatively early work painted when the artist was still developing the neoclassical manner he would perfect in the 1780s. Buron was the wife of a family friend and cousin, and the portrait commission came before David's formative years in Rome under Vien. The painting already shows his characteristic directness of gaze and interest in psychological presence, though the handling retains something of the Rococo manner still fashionable in France. It demonstrates how David moved from the prevailing courtly idiom toward the more severe and morally serious style that would define French painting for a generation and make him the visual voice of both Enlightenment virtue and Revolutionary idealism.
Technical Analysis
The early portrait shows David's natural talent for likeness and characterization, with warm flesh tones and sympathetic modeling. The technique is more informal and painterly than his later, more rigorously Neoclassical manner, reflecting his pre-Roman training in the Rococo tradition of French portrait painting.
Provenance
Probably in the sitter’s possession [for the descent of this portrait and the companion portrait of François Buron, see Schnapper in Paris 1989-90, p. 44, under no. 2]; probably by descent to her daughter, Marie Françoise Buron, who married François Charles Seigneur; probably by descent to their daughter, Alexandrine Marie Louise, who married Charles François Baudry; probably by descent to their son, A. Baudry, and his wife (both d. 1903), by 1879; probably in 1903 to Mme Baudry’s brother, M. Dussault (or Dussaud), and his wife [according to London 1948 and Péreire 1907]; presumably by descent to M. Regnault, a family member, Paris, until 1925; offered for sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 22 June 1905, no. 2 (ill.), bought in [subsequently lent by Regnault to Paris 1913]; sold by Regnault to Wildenstein, Paris in 1925; transferred from Wildenstein, Paris, on 22 March 1939; inventoried in Wildenstein, New York, stock on 27 February 1940 [acc.to Ay-Whang Hsia of Wildenstein, conversation with Martha Wolff 4 November 2003, note in curatorial file]; sold by Wildenstein to the Art Institute, 1963.
