Claudius Jacquand (1803 – 1878), Portrait Of A Woman, 1846

Oil on canvas – Signed and dated 1846 – 32 x 20.5 cm

A pupil of Fleury Richard, Claudius Jacquand established himself from the 1830s onward as one of Lyon’s foremost portrait painters before pursuing a career in Paris, where he earned medals and official recognition. Renowned for his history paintings, he also excelled in the art of intimate portraiture, revealing both his keen eye for detail and his refined sense of staging.

In this 1846 Portrait of a Woman, Jacquand displays all his pictorial elegance: the young sitter, posed behind a balustrade, appears against a rich red backdrop that enhances her delicate features and luminous gaze. With meticulous precision, the painter captures the fashion of the 1840s—black cape lined with orange, fitted grey-blue dress, lace cuffs, and above all the vivid red bow adorned with a cameo at the collar. The lace handkerchief held in one hand and the glove delicately carried in the other add an intimate note to the composition.
Through the accuracy of the flesh tones and the harmony of colors, Jacquand here signs a refined portrait, a testament to the bourgeois and Romantic taste of the July Monarchy.

Fine antique giltwood frame with a molded profile and twisted ornament, its patina enhancing the portrait with elegance.

His works are held in major museums in France and abroad, including Lyon, Versailles, Lille, Nantes, Munich, Amsterdam or Neuchâtel.