Portrait of Charlotte Duchesne

Philippe de Champaigne

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although the inscription likely postdates the artist's lifetime, there is no reason to doubt that this sheet is a portrait drawn from life of Philippe de Champaigne's wife, Charlotte Duchesne, daughter of the painter Nicolas Duchesne, who had hired the young Flemish-born artist to assist in the decoration of the Luxembourg Palace for Marie de' Medici shortly after his arrival in Paris. It is a study for a bust-length oil painting in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, which, before the Metropolitan's drawing came to light in 1992, had been thought to represent Henriette of France, wife of Charles I of England. With a disarming directness, the artist focused on transcribing his young wife's features and expression, with only the most minimal and schematic indications of costume and jewelry. To create this effect of naturalism, the face was subtly modeled in black chalk with touches of white and red. The delicate handling calls attention to the slight knitting of the sitter's brow and the rounded cheek revealing just the faintest hint of a smile.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art