Young Woman in Classical Dress by Louis Lafitte

Young Woman in Classical Dress c. 1804 - 1805

drawing, black-chalk

drawing

toned paper

light pencil work

pencil sketch

charcoal drawing

pencil drawing

coffee painting

underpainting

france

portrait drawing

watercolour illustration

black-chalk

watercolor

"Young Woman in Classical Dress" is a graphite drawing by Louis Lafitte, a prominent artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This artwork, created around 1804-1805, showcases a young woman in a flowing classical robe, reminiscent of ancient Greek or Roman attire. The intricate details of her dress and the delicate shading employed by Lafitte create a sense of depth and realism. This drawing is a fine example of Neoclassical art, a movement that celebrated the aesthetics of ancient Greece and Rome, and exemplifies the skill and attention to detail that characterized Lafitte's work. Currently housed at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the drawing serves as a testament to Lafitte's artistic prowess and the enduring appeal of Neoclassical themes in art.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart about 1 year ago

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In France in the 1790s, the Republicans used more than the guillotine to do away with the ancien régime. They went so far as to invent a new system of measures (the metric system), a new dress code, a new system of time (100-second minutes, 100-minute hours, 10-hour days), and a new calendar. Rejecting the Gregorian calendar inherited from the Roman Catholic Church, which structured the very fabric of life around religious observances and feast days, the Republicans decided to mark the days in a more rational, secular way. Their new calendar maintained the twelve-month year but introduced three-week months and ten-day weeks (décades). The extended week was the least popular measure, and not just with the church. A day of rest every seven days, not ten, was sacred to the working class, too. This study belongs to a series of designs by Louis Lafitte for a printed calendar in which he invented a new iconography for the months. The noble bathing woman represents Thermidor, France’s hottest month (late July to late August). Napoleon would abolish the unpopular Republican calendar in 1806, just a year or two after Lafitte produced this drawing.