bavarikon4UDescription
The portrait of Anne-Marie-Louise Thélusson, Comtesse de Sorcy, was painted in the year after the outbreak of the French Revolution and is representative for the type of relaxed, intimate depiction David had developed even before the Revolution. Here, David engages for the first time with the knee-length portrait and completely eschews the usual clichés of the interior and of costume.The sitter already orients herself on the fashion of the Revolution. She wears a white dress with an orange sash almost completely hidden from view. She consciously renounces the corset and hooped skirt. The hairdo is completely natural. The revolutionary element in the painting is the grey background, before which the countess is placed on an armchair – a background aptly termed by M. Bleyl as “aesthetic frottis (smear)” that would from now on become characteristic for the paintings of the artist.The sitter hailed from a rich Swiss family of bankers called Rilliet who resided in Paris. In 1787, at the age of seventeen, she had married Jean-Isaac Thélusson, Comte de Sorcy, who also descended from a Swiss banking family. However, he had chosen a military career. The family Thélusson employed many famous artists, such as Rigaud or Liotard; the architect Ledoux built their palace in town. These Protestant families had received the right to purchase real estate in France and to use the titles connected to their property as recently as in 1782.