Lady in Violet Dress with Feather-Trimmed Hat

This portrait of a lady in a fashionable feather-trimmed hat, a summer bouquet at her breast and a fan in her hands is one of Marie Gabrielle Capet’s masterpieces. The lady’s delicately painted face, which is reproduced in highly distinctive degrees of light and shade, displays extraordinary skill and corresponds to Capet’s demand for “true portraits” naturalistically representing the sitter.¹ The lady’s smiling mouth is an interesting detail which is rarely found in miniature portraits. Possibly the artist was inspired by the self-portraits of her famous Parisian colleague Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun, who often painted herself with a slightly open mouth. The colourful fan and the bouquet are harmoniously integrated into the picture and enliven its cool colouring.² The view of a wide open landscape in the background combined with a group of trees in the foreground is found in many of Capet’s portraits.
B. P.