Three Women of Ghent
Unknown · c. 1800
Three women look out at you from a dark background. The mother sits in the centre in a dark velvet dress and fur-trimmed coat, a white bonnet on her grey curls, spectacles on her nose, a gold chain across her chest and a folded letter in her hand. At the left her elder daughter stands in a cream Empire dress with a coral necklace and a lavish bonnet of flowers and blue ribbon; at the right the younger sits in a red shawl with a lace collar and a gold comb in her hair. The faces are plain and sharply observed, with none of the flattery of a Paris portrait.
The sitters are Madame Morel de Tangry, born Isabelle-Rose van Tieghem, the widow of an alderman of Courtrai, and two of her daughters, Isabelle-Rose, Madame Schellekens, and Thérèse-Apoline; the traditional title placing them in Ghent is a mistake, since the family came from Vichte. The signature David at the lower right is a later addition, and the museum now catalogues the canvas as by an unknown painter of around 1800 rather than by David, to whom it was long attributed. The Louvre bought it at auction in 1894.
Did You Know? The signature David at the bottom right is a later addition, and the women were not from Ghent but from Vichte.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.