An Unknown Lady in a Hat

This painting shows similarities to the portraits of Marianne Loir. The sitter has not been identified. However, the fashionable hat suggests it was an aristocratic lady who followed the trends set by Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, and her circle in the early 1780s.

The signed late 18th-century frame is not original to the portrait. The painting and the frame were probably put together in the late 19th century to make a more saleable piece. This led scholars to question whether it was actually a 19th-century painting of a generic late 18th-century French woman made specifically to fit into this important oval frame. However, the work is now believed to be by Loir.

Marianne Loir came from a family of silversmiths and painters. Her brother Alexis also painted portraits. She trained with Jean-François de Troy (1679-1752) and may have accompanied him to study at the French Academy in Rome where he was director. She made portraits of the aristocracy including in the South of France. Her work demonstrates an attention to the luxurious fashions of the 18th century as well as the personalities of her sitters.

There are certain facial resemblances between this painting and portraits of Madame du Barry (1743-1793), former mistress of Louis XV, and the Duchesse de Polignac (1749-1793), confidante of Marie Antoinette. It does not, however, closely resemble Elisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun's portrait of the Duchesse painted in 1783 at Waddesdon (acc. no. 2154), although the style of hat is similar. In the late 1770s, French noblewomen, led by Marie-Antoinette, sought to cast off the restrictive fashions of tight dresses and large wigs and embrace a more simple style of clothes, associated with nature and innocence, including such wide-brimmed hats that suggest an out-door life in the sun.

The painting is reminiscent of portraits by Vigée-LeBrun and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, notably in the treatment of the hair and the style of the hat. Given Loir's patronage circle, it is likely that this sitter was an aristocrat who followed the fashions of the court.

Phillippa Plock, 2011