![Unknown French Artist - Portrait of a Woman and Child [c.1795] by Gandalf's Gallery](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2860/9229636794_175ecee43f.jpg)
Unknown French Artist - Portrait of a Woman and Child [c.1795], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.
It is not known who painted this portrait, which in its relative austerity is quite typical of a certain strain of female portraiture in the years immediately after the French revolution. The styles of many painters changed dramatically in the 1790s and women previously barred from exhibiting at the Salon suddenly emerged to present their work to the public. The portrait came from a French collection where it had been attributed to Francois André Vincent, who was born in Paris in 1746 and died there in 1816. If by him, it would be a late work. More recently two experts on Jean Laurent Mosnier have offered conflicting views: Hermann Mildenberger supports an attribution to this artist while his colleague Gerrit Walczak rejects the proposal with equal conviction. Mosnier, born in Paris in 1743/44, fled to London in 1790 and then moved to Hamburg and in 1801 to St. Petersburg, where he died in 1808. Should the portrait be by him, it would have been painted abroad. A third alternative is a younger woman artist whose style is not yet adequately known. In this connection Margaret Oppenheimer has proposed a French painter of a succeeding generation, Adèle Romany (1769–1846).
[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 113 x 89.2 cm]