One of the most popular paintings in the Metropolitan Museum is a portrait of a pretty art student, Mlle. Charlotte du Val d'Ognes. Scholars have always assumed that Jacques Louis David painted it and surpassed himself in doing so; last week the scholars were proved wrong.
Charles Sterling, Louvre curator and foreign adviser to the Met, did the proving. In the Met's current Bulletin, Sterling confessed he had always viewed Mlle. Charlotte with "a mixture of admiration and skepticism." The complex background, the lighting from behind, the modeling and drawing are all unlike...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
