(Paris 1775–1835) A portrait of a seated youth, supporting himself on his right elbow, black and white chalk on paper, 59 x 45 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Pauline Auzou received her artistic formation in the studios of Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) and Jean-Baptiste Regnault (1754–1829) in Paris. Due to the extraordinary quality and empathy in her work she soon established a considerable reputation in the Paris art scene even though it was very much dominated by men around 1800. In 1897 Auzou exhibited the first time at the Paris salon and continued to be present there until 1817. Afterwards she concentrated almost exclusively on the education of young female artists in her workshop. At the beginning of her artistic career Pauline Auzou dedicated herself mainly to mythological subjects and history paintings, followed by portraits and genre scenes. In the course of preparing her paintings she executed numerous drawings after male and female nudes; Didot published several of her head studies in an album in 1800. In the present study of a young boy Auzou’s sensitive power of observation and her working method as a draughtswoman become particularly visible: At first she outlined the figures with contourlines and then modelled the portrait by adding white heightenings to the black chalk drawing. Immediacy and sensitivity in the expression of the sitter’s face are typical for the portraits by the artist, whose works were always guided by the description of emotional states and by intuition.