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A woman sitting in an upholstered chair near a vanity table touches the hair of the little girl leaning against her lap to our left, as a man leans onto the back of her chair to our right in this vertical portrait painting. The people all have pale skin, flushed cheeks, and their pale gray hair is pulled back and curled. Their pink lips curve in slight smiles, and light glinting off of much of the fabric suggests they wear satin or silk. The woman’s body is angled to our left, toward the girl, but she turns her head back to look up over her other shoulder with gray eyes. A voluminous, cream-white cloth drapes over her shoulders and lap, over a bodice covered in lilac-purple bows and ribbons. Her gold satin skirt falls around her feet. The little girl leans onto one arm on the woman’s lap as she turns to look at us with pale blue eyes. The girl’s forget-me-not-blue dress has a fitted bodice, elbow-length sleeves over white cuffs, a long, full skirt, and white ruffles along the collar. The woman holds blue flowers in the girl’s hair, and the girl’s forearm wraps around a bundle of pink and red flowers in the woman’s lap. The chair is upholstered in teal blue and has a gold frame and a row of gold nail heads along the padded back and arm. The man leans one forearm against the back of the chair as he looks down at the girl. In that hand, he holds a folded piece of paper with writing. He wears a loose jacket decorated with gold pagodas, pink and yellow flowers, and spruce-green leaves against a brown background. Foamy white lace falls back from his cuffs and hangs down from the high white collar of his undershirt. He wears brick-red, knee-length britches, white stockings, and black shoes with silver buckles. His other hand is planted against his hip, and one ankle is crossed in front of the other. A vanity draped with a white cloth sits on the far side of the woman and girl, along the left edge of the painting. It holds gold and glass vessels and boxes, and a rounded mirror at the back is draped with dark pink cloth. The lower half of a window behind the vanity is covered by a white cloth, and the panes continue beyond the top of the canvas. A teal-blue curtain hangs along the right edge of the window, at the corner of the room. A clock with a gold case of swirling, carved designs hangs high on the peanut-brown wall behind the man. On the floor near the chair, blue and white striped tissue paper, a rose-pink ribbon, and a strand of pearls drape over the edges of an open box. Writing along the front edge of the lid of the box reads, “Fs. Drouais. Ce 1 avril. 1756.” A pink rose lies near the girl’s feet, to our left.

Family Portrait, 1756

François-Hubert Drouais

Not on View

We don’t know who this family is, but the inscription on the lid of the box on the floor tells us the date: April 1, 1756. It was a tradition in 18th-century France to exchange gifts on April 1, and this wealthy family has gathered around the mother’s dressing table to shower her with presents. This intimate and informal work is different from earlier European portraits. Typically, family portraits celebrated lineage, social status, and patriarchal authority. Here, Drouais expresses a new, modern ideal of the family: an emotional unit bound by mutual affection and the pleasures of luxury.

Dive deeper

François-Hubert Drouais dated his life-size informal family portrait 1 April 1756, thereby revealing a hidden meaning. In the medieval calendar New Year’s Day coincided with the vernal equinox of 25 March, and 1 April, which marked the beginning of Spring, was celebrated with festivities and gift-giving. After the Gregorian calendar of 1582 proclaimed 1 January as New Year’s Day, the tradition of exchanging springtime gifts on 1 April continued and is still celebrated today, albeit in a rather distilled form as April Fool’s Day. The springtime exchange of gifts is elaborately displayed in Drouais’ work: the little girl presents flowers to her mother, the husband reads a letter or sonnet to his wife, and the wife, while arranging flowers in her daughter’s hair, also points to their child as a symbolic gift to her husband.

Drouais does not provide enough specific information for us to identify his sitters, but he does give an intimate view into the boudoir. Neither husband nor wife are fully dressed; she wears a smock to prevent powder from spoiling her dress, and he wears a silken housecoat embroidered with fashionable oriental motifs. Like his master Boucher, Drouais relishes in the display of contrasting tones and sumptuous colors.

Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 244 x 195 cm (96 1/16 x 76 3/4 in.)

framed: 281.9 x 224.8 x 21 cm (111 x 88 1/2 x 8 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1946.7.4

Artists / Makers

François-Hubert Drouais (artist) French, 1727 - 1775

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Detail Information

Inscription

lower right on box lid: Fs.Drouais.ce 1 avril. 1756

Provenance

(Wertheimer, London);[1] purchased 1889 by Samuel Cunliffe-Lister, 1st baron Masham [1815-1906], Swinton Park, near Bedale, Yorkshire;[2] by inheritance to his son, Samuel Cunliffe Cunliffe-Lister, 2nd baron Masham [1857-1917], Swinton Park; by inheritance to his brother, John Cunliffe Cunliffe-Lister, 3rd baron Masham [1867-1924], Swinton Park; by inheritance to his cousin, Lady Lloyd-Greame [née Mary Constance Boynton, later Viscountess Swinton, d. 1974], Swinton Park; purchased November 1936 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris, stock no, 29845);[3] purchased 1942 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1946 to NGA.

[1] Writers about the painting have proposed that it may have been the picture entitled La Toilette which was featured in the 10 March 1845 sale of the Marquis de Cypierre, or that it had belonged to the music hall singer and impresario, Aristide Bruant (1851-1925) before its acquisition by Wertheimer. Neither claim can at present be substantiated.

"Wertheimer" was the dealer Charles J. Wertheimer of London and Paris, who also owned for a time Jean Antoine Watteau's Ceres (Summer) (NGA 1961.9.50). Viscount Swinton, in a letter of 1 June 1950 to Fern Rusk Shapley (in NGA curatorial files), related that Wertheimer had refused to disclose to his wife's grandfather the name of the previous owner. He reported an uncorroborated tale according to which the husband in the painting was a banker to Louis XV who had tried to monopolize the French wheat market and had thereby brought disgrace upon his family. He goes on to state that the reputed name of the sitter was a "M. de Paris."

[2] The painting is listed in a Duveen Brothers "Callers Book" in an entry for 21 September 1925, when Edward Duveen, Captain Ernest Duveen, and Walter Dowdeswell visited Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister (1884-1972) and saw the following painting by Drouais: "Large picture of an unknown lady and gentleman and child - full-length, lifesize. This is a most important picture, and nothing seems to be known about it except that Lady Cunliffe-Lister says it was bought from Wertheimer" (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Duveen Archive; copy in NGA curatorial files). Viscount Swinton confirmed this information and supplied the date of purchase from Wertheimer in his 1950 letter (see note 1).

[3] Lady Lloyd-Greame was the daughter of Rev. Charles Ingram William Boynton (d. 1928) and Mary Eubank Cunliffe-Lister (d. 1896), herself the daughter of the 1st baron Masham. In 1912, she married Sir Philip Lloyd-Greame (1884-1972), who assumed the surname of Cunliffe-Lister in 1924 after the death of the 3rd baron Masham; he later became the Viscount Swinton (1935) and 1st earl of Swinton in 1955. The Duveen Brothers Records document the firm's ultimately successful effort to purchase the painting that begin by at least 14 May 1925, before the visit described in note 1, when Lady Cunliffe-Lister told Duveen's representative that "this picture [would be] the last she would sell" (telegram from Ernest Duveen, London, to Duveen Brothers, New York, and other documents; Duveen Brothers Records, Getty Research Institute Library, Los Angeles, accession no. 960015, reel 92, box 237, folder 5; copies and transcriptions in NGA curatorial files). Also Duveen NY Stockbook no. 19, no. 29845 (also copies NGA curatorial files).

[4] See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/988.

Associated Names

Cunliffe-Lister, 1st baron Masham, Samuel
Cunliffe-Lister, 2nd baron Masham, Samuel Cunliffe
Cunliffe-Lister, 3rd baron Masham, John Cunliffe
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Lloyd-Greame, Lady
Wertheimer, Charles J.

Exhibition History

1902: Exhibition of a Selection of Works by French and English Painters of the Eighteenth Century, Art Gallery of the Corporation of London, 1902, no. 18.

1925: Loan Exhibition of Pictures by Old Masters, Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, 1925, no. 9 as, A Family Group.

1936: Masterpieces from the Collections of Yorkshire and Durham, City Art Gallery, Leeds, 1936, no. 29.

1937: Chefs d'oeuvre de L'art français, Palais National Des Arts, Paris, 1937, no. 152, as Portrait de Famille.

1940: Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 197, repro. as A Family Group of the Louis XV Period.

1946: Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 769.

1994: A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Seattle Art Museum; Calif. Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1994-1995, no. 53.

Bibliography

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1913: Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813-1912. 5 vols. London, 1913-1915: 1(1913):302.

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1937: Huyghe, René. La peinture française du XIVe au XVIIe siècle: (figures et portraits). Paris, 1937: pl. 16 (detail of girl's head).

1940: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "383 Masterpieces of Art: The World's Fair Exhibition of Paintings of Four Centuries Loaned from American Public and Private Collections." Art News 38 (25 May 1940): 37, 64, repro.

1940: "Masterpieces of Art Provide Brilliant Display at New York Fair." Art Digest 17 (1 June 1940): 7.

1944: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 112, color repro.

1944: Frankfurter, Alfred. "French Masterpieces for the National Gallery." Art News 42, no. 10 (August 1944): 8, 24, repro.

1944: Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 78, repro. no. 80.

1944: "Kress Makes Important Donation of French Painting to the Nation." Art Digest 18, no. 19 (1 August 1944): 5.

1944: "One of the Greatest Donations of XVIIIth Century French Painting Ever Received by a Museum - The Kress Collection." Illustrated London News 115, no. 2992 (26 August 1944): 248, 249, repro.

1944: Richardson, E.P. "A Family Group by Drouais in the National Gallery." Art Quarterly 7 (Summer 1944): 224-227, repro.

1945: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 165, repro.

1951: King, Marian. Portfolio Number 3. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: no. 7, color repro.

1956: Einstein, Lewis. "Looking at French Eighteenth-Century Pictures in Washington." Gazette des Beaux Arts6th ser., 47, no. 1048-1049 (May-June 1956): 230-231, n. 17, fig. 14.

1957: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): 39, 50, fig. 18, pl. 128 (detail).

1959: Cooke, Hereward Lester. French Paintings of the 16th-18th Centuries in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Four in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 36, color repro.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 360, repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 317, repro.

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1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:318, color repro.

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1968: Verlet, Pierre. The Eighteenth-Century House in France: Society, Decoration, Furniture. Rutland, Vermont, 1968: 85, pl. 58.

1973: Duncan, Carol. "Happy Mothers and Other New Ideas in French Art." The Art Bulletin 55 (December 1973): 578, 579, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 110, repro.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 322-323, fig. 285, as Family Portrait (April Fool's Day 1756).

1979: Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part IV." Apollo 110 (July 1979): 49 [241].

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 326, no. 433, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 135, repro.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 171, repro.

1995: Ribeiro, Aileen. The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France 1750 to 1820. New Haven and London, 1995: 35, 50, fig. 35.

1996: Posner, Donald. "The 'Duchesse de Velours' and Her Daughter: A Masterpiece by Nattier and Its Historical Context." Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal 31 (1996): 139, fig. 11.

1996: Sahut, Marie-Catherine. "Louis-Michel Van Loo...Potrait du marquis de Margny (1727-1781) et de sa femme, née Marie-Françoise Constance Julie Filleul (1751-1822)." In Musée du Louvres: nouvelles acquisitions du département des pictures 1991-1995. Paris, 1996: 154, repro.

1997: Donzel, Catherine. Le Livre des Fleurs, France, 1997: 85, repro.

1999: Ranum, Orest. "Intimacy in French Eighteenth-Century Family Portraits." Word and Image 6, no. 4 (October-December 1999): 359, repro.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 251, no. 202, color repro.

2009: Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 27, 136-142, color repro.

2011: Chrisman-Campbell, Kimberly. "Dressing to Impress: The Morning Toilette and the Fabrication of Femininity." In Bremer-David, Charissa, ed., Paris: Life and Luxury in the Eighteenth Century. Exh. cat., J. Paul, Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2011: 58-59, color repro.

2023: Lasic, Barbara. "A transatlantic hybrid and a 'Fauve de la Curiosité':: Edouard Jonas (1883-1961), dealer and curator." Conalghi Studies Journal 12 (March 2023): 61, fig. 5.