Constance Charpentier

1767 – 1849

French woman painter. She was a pupil of François Gérard and Jacques-Louis David, and in 1788 she received a Prix d'Encouragement. She exhibited at the Salon from 1795 until 1819, when she received a gold medal. Like other female painters of her period, she specialized in sentimental genre scenes and portraits of women and children. Although she was considered by contemporary critics to be one of the finest portrait painters of the age, few works by her have been traced. One of the first known works is Scene of Family Life (1796, private collection), a genre scene closer to Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun than to David. Among her portraits shown in the Salon of 1801 may have been that of Charlotte du Val d'Ognes (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), previously attributed to David, showing a young girl drawing, posed against the sunlight. The painting reflects the influence of Gérard and is close in style to a portrait of Mme Pagniere-Drolling (St Louis, Art Museum).

View all works →