Vrouw rouwend bij urn van Pierre Prud'hon 1823 - 1837

François Louis Soinard created this print, "Woman Mourning at the Urn of Pierre Prud'hon", as a tribute to the recently deceased artist. Prud'hon's reputation rested on his emotionally charged history paintings and portraits, done in a soft, sentimental style. Here, Soinard memorializes Prud'hon using the visual language of Neoclassicism, which had been the established style of French art for decades. The urn labeled "Prud'hon" and the figure of a weeping woman are classical motifs meant to ennoble the memory of the deceased. Yet the raw emotion visible in the woman's face suggests the shift in taste toward Romanticism, which valued individual feeling above all. The inscription informs us that it is based on Prud'hon’s last painting, suggesting that Soinard wanted to be faithful to Prud’hon's artistic style and vision. Prints like this one provide valuable historical information. By studying them and other related documents, we can better understand how art and artists were perceived in their own time.