Portrait of a Young Woman as a Vestal Virgin by Drouais in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2010

Artist: François Hubert Drouais (French, 1727–1775)

Title: Portrait of a Young Woman as a Vestal Virgin

Date: 1767

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 31 1/2 x 24 7/8 in. (80 x 63.2 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. William M. Haupt, from the collection of Mrs. James B. Haggin, 1965

Accession Number: 65.242.2


Gallery Label:

The way in which the sitter lifts her veil is suggestive. In the eighteenth century her costume, and the brazier with its glowing embers, would have been understood as an allusion to the chaste acolytes of Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth and house. The smooth handling and pallid tonality are appropriate to the theme.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/europe...