Artwork
Portrait of a Woman
Portrait of a Woman is an unspecified painting by the Neoclassicist artist Louis-Marie Autissier. It dates from 1810 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work is a portrait of an unidentified woman executed as a miniature by the French artist Louis-Marie Autissier in 1810.
The work is a portrait of an unidentified woman executed as a miniature by the French artist Louis-Marie Autissier in 1810. As a portrait miniature it follows the convention of capturing a realistic likeness, a format often used in early-nineteenth-century Europe to provide a personal record of the sitter. The painting is part of the Cleveland Museum of Art's collection, listed under the title Portrait of a Woman and classified as a painting within the portrait genre.
Technique & Style
Created in 1810, this work is a portrait miniature executed by the French artist Louis-Marie Autissier. As a miniature, the piece belongs to a specific genre of small-scale portraiture, though the provided sources do not specify the exact support material or the handling techniques employed by the artist. The work is currently held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
History & Provenance
The portrait miniature was created in 1810 by the French artist Louis-Marie Autissier. This work, classified as a painting and specifically a miniature, depicts a woman and dates to the early nineteenth century. The piece is currently held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is cataloged under the accession number 2012.96.
No further details regarding the original commission, the specific identity of the sitter, or the intermediate ownership chain prior to its museum acquisition are provided in the available records.
Portrait of a Woman by Louis-Marie Autissier is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The work is catalogued under the inventory number 2012.96, a miniature painted in 1810. No exhibition history is recorded in the available sources for this work.
Context
Portrait of a Woman is positioned within the oeuvre of Louis-Marie Autissier (1772–1830), a leading miniature painter of the early nineteenth century who, though born in France, became a central figure in the development of miniature painting in the Low Countries. Autissier refined the genre of portrait miniature by employing delicate watercolor on ivory, a technique that aligned with the period's taste for intimate, collectible likenesses, and his work reflects the neoclassical currents of the early 1800s.
The Cleveland Museum of Art holds the miniature, catalogued as 2012.96, situating it within a broader corpus of portrait miniatures that circulated among aristocratic and bourgeois patrons. Its execution in 1810 places the work at a transitional moment, as larger-scale portraiture and lithography began to shift attention away from the intimate scale of ivory-supported portraits.
Overview
This small, circular painting, Portrait of a Woman, was created in 1810 by Louis-Marie Autissier. A French-born artist primarily active in the Netherlands, Autissier specialized in miniature portraits. The work exemplifies the Neoclassical style prevalent at the time, showcasing a refined depiction of an unidentified sitter. It is currently part of the collection at The Cleveland Museum of Art.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Louis-Marie Autissier (8 February 1772 – 21 September 1830) was a French-born portrait miniature painter in the Netherlands.
