Portrait of a woman, possibly Sébastienne Gallet

Fulchran Jean Harriet was a precocious student, entering the studio of Jacques Louis David at age 12. He won the Grand Prix and was sent to Rome to study history painting but died there at age 29, apparently of tuberculosis.


This recently discovered portrait is an early work, dating to when the artist was twenty years old. It is presumed to depict Sébastienne Gallet, a miniaturist whom he would marry in 1799. The sitter closely resembles the Portrait de Mme Harriet, dating approximately five years later and today in the Musée Marmottan-Monet, Paris (inv. 1252).


The rich dark tones are characteristic of the manière noire style popularized by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, a fellow student in David’s atelier. In its moody lighting and lush natural setting, it embodies a proto-romantic sensibility, variations of which also emerged in the work of other young artists in the early years of the French republic.