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Portrait of a Young Girl (Guérin)

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Portrait of a Young Girl
ArtistPierre-Narcisse Guérin
Year1794[1]
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions60 cm × 50 cm (24 in × 20 in)
LocationLouvre[1], Paris

Portrait of a Young Girl (French: Jeune fille en buste) is an oil on canvas painting by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, from in 1794 and exhibited at the Louvre in Paris.

Background

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One of Guérin's early works, the painting treats the subject in a frank and direct way. It is a portrait of a young girl, depicted while covering her breasts with both hands. The smooth background, simplicity of the design and the use of the measured color are characteristic of the neo-classical style and of the school of Jean-Baptiste Regnault and Jacques-Louis David. The work was acquired by the Louvre in 1978.[1]

The girl's short hair is inspired by the Titus cut (French: coiffure à la Titus),[2] popular in France at the time and based on the hairstyle of the Roman era.[3] In fact, the work is one of the first paintings to depict this hairstyle.[4] The style may have taken its name from Titus Junius Brutus, son of the Roman politician Lucius Junius Brutus.[5]

Mary Novik's debut novel, Conceit used the image for the cover of the book.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Jeune fille en buste". Louvre (in French). 1795.
  2. ^ a b Novik, Mary. "Jeune fille en buste". Backstory.
  3. ^ Lowery, Allison (2019-11-28). Historical Wig Styling: Ancient Egypt to the 1830s. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-74980-3. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  4. ^ "Coiffeur alla Titus, il primo taglio di capelli corti per le donne occidentali". Dejavuteam (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2019-02-28. Retrieved 2021-09-29.
  5. ^ Patowary, Kaushik (2020-04-01). "The Guillotine Haircut". Retrieved 2021-09-29.
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