Portrait of Madame Emilie Sériziat and Her Son
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) · 1795
A young woman in a white muslin dress sits on a red-covered bench against a dark ground, a straw hat trimmed with green ribbons tied under her chin, a green sash at her waist, and a bunch of freshly picked wild flowers in one hand. With the other she steadies a small boy in a white frock who leans against her knee and looks out at you. She looks straight at you too, with a friendly, slightly shy smile. The panel is the pendant to the portrait of her husband Pierre nearby, painted in the same weeks.
Emilie Pécoul was the sister of David's wife, and the boy is her son Emile, born in 1793, who died in childhood. David painted the pair during two stays at the Sériziat house at Saint-Ouen, near Favières east of Paris, in late spring and August 1795, just after his release from prison. Both portraits appeared at the Salon of 1795 and stayed in the family until 1868, then with the collector Joseph Sosthène Moreau; the Louvre bought them in 1902. Look at the freshness of the whites, painted on wood, and the informality of the flowers she has just gathered.
Did You Know? The flowers in her hand were picked on the family estate where David painted her, just after his release from prison.
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