id: 121267 accession number: 1942.1139 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.1139 updated: Portrait of a Woman at a Harpsichord, c. 1788. François Dumont (French, 1751–1831). Watercolor on ivory in a 19th-century stamped gold and gilt metal frame; diameter: 7.3 cm (2 7/8 in.); diameter of frame: 9.3 cm (3 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection 1942.1139 title: Portrait of a Woman at a Harpsichord title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1788 creation date earliest: 1785 creation date latest: 1789 current location: creditline: The Edward B. Greene Collection copyright: --- culture: France, 18th century technique: watercolor on ivory in a 19th-century stamped gold and gilt metal frame department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - French 18th Century type: Portrait Miniature find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * François Dumont (French, 1751–1831) - artist --- measurements: Diameter: 7.3 cm (2 7/8 in.); Diameter of frame: 9.3 cm (3 11/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed right: Dumont. fc translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America opening date: 1993-03-26T04:00:00 Intimate Images: Portrait Miniatures from Europe and America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 26-October 17, 1993). title: Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives opening date: 2013-11-10T00:00:00 Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Four Centuries of Miniature Painting, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1950. January 18-March 19, 1950.

Main European Rotation (Gallery 202), July 18, 2011 - January 30, 2012. --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: We do not know the identity of this elegantly dressed woman who plays a sonata on the harpsichord. There are two copies of this miniature that are attributed to other artists (Peter Adolphe Hall and Marie Christine Campana), and both identify the sitter as Sophie Arnould, a highly acclaimed French soprano. Dumont was fond of using objects in the space around the sitter to express her character—a common practice in portraits—so it is possible that this woman was a musician. To play a musical instrument well was considered an essential feminine accomplishment for an aristocratic woman during the eighteenth century, and like her fashionable dress, communicates the sitter's grace and charm to the viewer. This miniature was probably painted around 1788, on the eve of the French revolution, and the year that Sophie retired from the stage at the age of 48. Unknown sitters are oftentimes later identified as persons who were well-known or fashionable during the period when the work was painted, and it is difficult to know conclusively. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art. Portrait Miniatures; The Edward B. Greene Collection. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1951. page number: Reproduced: plate XXVIII, no. 60; Mentioned: p. 34 url: https://archive.org/details/PortraitMiniatures/page/n75 --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.1139/1942.1139_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.1139/1942.1139_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1942.1139/1942.1139_full.tif