Marie Pauline Adrienne Coeffier, née Lescuyer. French painter.

Portrait of a young boy , 1849

Oil on canvas

Signed and dated middle right

Dimensions: 47.5 x 39.5 cm

With frame: 67 x 61 cm

Marie Pauline Adrienne Coeffier, née Lescuyer, married Louis Edouard Coeffier in 1833. Oil painter and pastellist, she studied at Léon Coignet's studio.

She specialized in the art of portraiture, and exhibited at the Salons from 1849 to 1868. Her talent as a portrait painter established her alongside the greatest. Marie Coeffier became official painter in 1856, when she painted the portrait of Napoleon III in 1856. Those of Empress Eugenie followed in 1863, 1857, 1859 and 1861. In addition to the faces of the court, she was try at mythological and religious scenes.

This portrait shows a young child. The artist poses his model so that she appears frontally to the viewer.

Its stature and attribute, a small hunting rifle, indicates that it is an academic portrait, commissioned by an aristocratic hunting family.

Marie Coeffier dwells on the details with subtlety. They give shine and shine to fabrics, whose patterns energize the whole and contrast with the softness of the child's face.

Her black hair frames her ebony eyes, which the painter invigorates with a touch of light. Her rosy cheeks echo the bright colors of her garment, whose fine lace ruff isolates the face to give it its full place.