Marie-denise villers artwork

Young woman drawing by marie-denise villers
Marie-denise villers self-portrait
Marie-Denise Villers was a French painter who specialized in portraits.

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Marie Denise Villers Alexander Nagel

An artist at her work: the painter’s 1801 portrait of
Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes.

Marie Denise Villers, Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes, 1801. Oil on canvas, 63 1/2 × 50 5/8 inches. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image courtesy Art Resource.

Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes, by Marie Denise Villers, available to view on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website

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Editor’s note: In light of the fact that museum and gallery exhibitions remain closed during the coronavirus pandemic, we have invited our contributors to reflect on an artwork that is particularly significant to them and that is easily viewed online.

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A young woman leans forward to get a good look at us. The fact that we’re looking at her is not her concern; she is intent on doing something with us, and it will take time. The quiet of the spare room will ground a long session made up

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Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d'Ognes (1786–1868)

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Title:Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d'Ognes (1786–1868)

Artist:Marie Denise Villers (French, Paris 1774–1821 Paris (?))

Date:1801

Medium:Oil on canvas

Dimensions:63 1/2 × 50 5/8 in. (161.3 × 128.6 cm)

Classification:Paintings

Credit Line:Mr. and Mrs. Isaac D. Fletcher Collection, Bequest of Isaac D. Fletcher, 1917

Object Number:17.120.204

In the later 1790s, Marie Denise was a student of Anne Louis Girodet-Trioson (1767–1824); she was also the younger sister of Marie Victoire Lemoine (1754–1820), by whom it may be supposed that she was influenced. Called Nisa, she married Michel-Jean-Maximilien Villers, an architect, in 1794. Five years later she was named the recipient of a small prize for a portrait of a woman painting, Un portrait, Femme peignant. She exhibited at the Salons of 1799 through 1802 and in that of 1814 (hors catalogue). Very few pictures by her are known. This portrait has most recently been attribut

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Marie-Denise Villers

French artist (1774–1821)

Marie-Denise Villers (née Lemoine; 1774 – 19 August 1821) was a French painter who specialized in portraits.

Life

Marie-Denise Lemoine was born in Paris to Charles Lemoine and Marie-Anne Rouselle. Two of her three sisters, Marie-Victoire Lemoine (1754–1820) and Marie-Élisabeth Gabiou (1755–1812), as well as distant cousin Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet (1767–1832), were all trained as portraitists. Within her family, Marie-Denise was known as "Nisa." The family lived on the Rue Traversière-Saint-Honoré (today Rue Molière) near the Palais Royal in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. Little is known about Marie-Denise's childhood, however it is likely that through her much older sisters and cousin she would have been introduced to the salons of Paris. It was in the Paris Salon of 1799 that she met the artist Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson, and also began to take painting lessons with François Gérard and Jacques-Louis David.^{[citation needed]}

In 1794, she married an architecture student, Michel-Jean-Maximilien Villers.