Artwork
Young French Marquise in Exile in Lausanne
Young French Marquise in Exile in Lausanne is a gouache drawing by the Romanticist artist Jean-Baptiste Mallet. It dates from 1789 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Jean‑Baptiste Mallet’s 1789 gouache on wove paper, titled *Young French Marquise in Exile in Lausanne*, captures an intimate interior scene. The work records a domestic setting rendered in muted tones, focusing on a group of figures gathered around a modest hearth.
Subject & Meaning
At the center stands a woman in a white dress, holding a sheet of paper, while a young girl leans against her. Nearby, a blue‑dressed woman cradles a child on her lap, and a boy crouches by a table, stirring a pot. A cat perches on a chair, and the surrounding objects suggest a household in modest circumstances, perhaps reflecting the displacement implied by the title.
Technique & Style
Mallet employed gouache, a water‑based medium that yields opaque, matte colors, allowing him to model forms with soft edges and subtle shading. The paper support retains the texture of the wove surface, while the composition emphasizes a shallow depth of field, drawing attention to the figures and the cluttered, timber‑framed room.
Context
Created in the year of the French Revolution, the work references a French marquise living in exile in Lausanne, Switzerland. Though specific ownership records are limited, the drawing has been catalogued as a representative example of Mallet’s late‑eighteenth‑century genre scenes, illustrating the artist’s interest in everyday moments amid political upheaval.
Artist & collection
Peasant kitchen in ruins (Italian kitchen)
The Surprised Lovers
A Swiss Cottage Scene
A Mother Feeding her Child (The Happy Mother)
The Visit to the Nursery
The Dancing Dog
La Complaisance maternelle
Interior with a woman showing a bird cage to two children
Maternal Solicitude
Kitchen Scene
Spoiled Child
A Mother Feeding her Child (The Happy Mother)