Madame François Buron
Jacques Louis David (French, 1748–1825)
1769
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 66.3 × 55.5 cm (26 1/8 × 21 7/8 in.); Framed: 92.4 × 81.6 × 10.2 cm (36 3/8 × 32 1/8 × 4 in.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Albert J. Beveridge in memory of her mother, Abby Louise Spencer (Mrs. Augustus Eddy).
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Following his father’s death in 1757, the young Jacques-Louis David was raised in the house of his uncle, architect François Buron, and his wife, Marie-Josèphe Fromont. Madame Buron was particularly supportive of David’s desire to become a painter, in opposition to her husband’s wish that he study architecture. In this intimate early portrait, David presented his aunt looking up momentarily from her reading to acknowledge the viewer with a warm reserve. Her glance suggests an affectionate bond between the painter and sitter and displays the ambitious young artist’s awareness of contemporary conventions for depicting middle-class women of sensibility.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
