The Getty acquires Portrait of a Woman, 1818 by Sophie Frémiet

16 April 2024

An important work by Sophie Frémiet, later Sophie Rude, acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum,

Robilant+Voena has sold an important work by Sophie Frémiet, later Sophie Rude, to the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Frémiet was among the most talented pupils of Jacques-Louis David during the neoclassical master's exile in Brussels, and her Portrait of a Woman, painted in 1818, was well received at the Brussels Salon of that year.

The sitter has not been identified, though she is plainly a woman of fashion, wearing a dark blue silk dress trimmed with white lace and satin, set against a deep orange cashmere shawl. The picture shows the artist's command of fabric and texture, and while David's teaching is evident throughout, so is a manner that is already her own.