Alexandre Charles Emmanuel de Crussol-Florensac (1743–1815)

The portrait of Alexandre Charles Emmanuel de Crussol-Florensac was executed in oil on a wooden panel, a support commonly employed for French portraiture of the late 18th century. The painting measures roughly 89.9 × 64.8 cm, reflecting the scale typical of Vigée Le Brun’s commissioned works. Her technique is characterized by fine, controlled brushwork that renders delicate facial features and subtle fabric textures, while the handling of light produces a soft chiaroscuro that models the sitter’s face and attire.

The composition presents a naturalistic pose with a restrained palette, emphasizing both the aristocratic status of the subject and the artist’s skill in capturing psychological presence within the constraints of neoclassical portraiture.

The portrait of Alexandre Charles Emmanuel de Crussol-Florensac was executed in 1787 by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun using oil on panel (89.9 × 64.8 cm). It belongs to the portrait genre and was created while the sitter was a young aristocrat of the French court. Following its completion the work entered the collection of Jules Bache, who later bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on display.

The painting’s inception date is recorded as 1787, and its formal cataloguing in the museum’s records confirms its provenance from Bache’s ownership to the museum’s permanent collection.

The portrait by Vigée Le Brun is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, with accession number 43.96. It was part of the Jules Bache Collection prior to its acquisition by the museum. The painting has not been recorded as lent to any major exhibitions in the sources provided.

This oil portrait, created in 1794 by the French artist Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, depicts Alexandre Charles Emmanuel de Crussol-Florensac. The painting exemplifies Vigée Le Brun's characteristic approach, which often combined the decorative elegance of Rococo with the emerging clarity of Neoclassical aesthetics. As a prominent portraitist, she was highly regarded in pre-Revolutionary French society for her ability to capture individual likenesses.

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun established herself as a leading portrait painter in France during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Her career flourished particularly in the years preceding the French Revolution, where she garnered significant recognition for her ability to portray the era's elite. This 1794 work reflects her continued practice during a period of considerable political and social change, maintaining her distinctive artistic voice.