The Interesting Student

In 1783 the Royal Academy in Paris admitted two women painters on the same day and then fixed the number of women members at four. Three years later Marguerite Gérard, aged 25, painted this young woman in a cluttered studio, holding a framed print on her knees and studying it closely. The print reproduces The Fountain of Love, one of the best-known compositions of Fragonard, her teacher.

Look at the lower left. A polished metal ball on the floor reflects the other half of the room, where a woman sits at an easel painting while a man looks at her canvas. The Louvre credits the picture to Gérard alone. A hand from Fragonard has been suggested but never shown.

Géraud Vidal engraved it in 1787, and in 1794 it was seized from the collection of the comte de Seneffe. The Louvre bought it at a Paris auction in December 2019, using the state's right to step in ahead of other bidders.