Neoclassicism saturates this droll portrait of a French girl c. 1800: the high-waisted dress, the antique hairstyle "a la Titus” complemented with more conventionally feminine accoutrements like the earrings, necklace, and bracelet, as well as the white rose. I bought the canvas unframed years ago and paired it with an exact-fitting Neoclassical frame that I somehow managed to locate. This portrait really is fascinating: the image of the girl is shockingly modern in keeping with the reaction against the periwigged artifice of the ancien regime and the later sentimentality of the Romantic Era.

Oil on canvas, measures: 65,5 x 53,5 cm