Portrait of a young italian woman 1875

Alexandre Cabanel painted this portrait of a young woman, identity unconfirmed, in the 19th century. During this time, Italy, newly unified, was a popular subject for European artists. Cabanel, known for his academic style and classical themes, here turns his eye to the Italian landscape by way of a young woman. Her gaze is cast slightly away, as if lost in thought, and her clothing mixes the ‘peasant’ with the ‘bourgeois’. The woman’s adornments, like the gold necklace and earrings, present a sense of wealth, but are at odds with the red scarf that is wrapped around her head. This mixture of signifiers leaves us with questions around identity, class, and representation: who was this woman, and what might this portrait reveal about how Italian identity was being constructed and consumed during this period? It seems the artwork holds a complex interplay of social, economic, and cultural meanings.