English: Portrait of Etiennette Roussée

This portrait of Etiennette Roussée was painted by Henri-Pierre Danloux in London, shortly after his arrival there in 1792. By the dawn of the French Revolution, Danloux’s reputation as a society portraitist was well-established in Paris, where his associations with the aristocracy and royal court forced him into exile. In London, the artist found a receptive clientele among the French émigré community and was quickly absorbed into the city’s lively art scene. In the process of establishing a clientele in England, Danloux began to cultivate a permanent exhibition of his paintings to decorate his new studio's walls, advertise his talent, and encourage the patronage of visitors. Among the selection of works on permanent display, the present portrait of Etiennette Roussée was painted by Danloux to keep for himself and remained in his personal collection. It was eventually inherited by his son Jules, who likewise possessed the portrait for the duration of his life.

Dressed for a morning stroll in Hyde Park, the fashionable sitter wears a striped dress, cinched at the waist. Danloux conveys the rich materiality of the different fabrics with a lyrical touch. Roussée’s neck is adorned with a pleated muslin collar, accented by a navy silk ribbon to match the voluminous bow atop her powdered blonde curls. She sports a black taffeta scarf bordered with floral accents of colored silk, an example of the eighteenth-century vogue for tambour embroidery. In the background, scattered trees cast shadows across the dawn-lit landscape of Hyde Park where, at right, a pair of wandering does take notice of the sitter’s presence. At left, a playful terrier leaps energetically from behind her skirt, perhaps a covert symbol of the artist’s enthusiasm for his subject.

According to Danloux’s diary (published in part by Baron Roger Portalis in 1910), the artist was introduced to Etiennette Roussée shortly after his arrival in England. Of their first encounter at Mrs. Huntley’s house, Danloux wrote: “She seemed to me very pretty and had a pleasant appearance…When she left, I went to the window to watch her pass.” The artist soon struck up a friendship with the enigmatic Madame Roussée, who modeled for him on several occasions. According to Danloux’s account, she was an avid conversationalist, often gossiping during their sessions and relaying news of the acquaintances whom he had left behind in France. In one entry, the artist reflects: “She talks a lot while I paint her and yet doesn’t say much,” to which Roger Portalis added, “isn’t an artist’s studio a kind of confessional?”

Danloux’s diary provides a fascinating account of Roussée, reportedly divulged while posing in the artist’s studio. She was the daughter of a locksmith from Franche-Comté, a rural region in eastern France on the Swiss border. At age fourteen, she was sent under false pretenses to live with a young man and his mother in Pontarlier as a companion to the other children. He eventually brought her to Paris, passing her off as his cousin, where she was placed in the convent at Chaillot to receive an education. On one excursion to visit a fashion merchant from the Palais-Royal, she encountered Charles Alexis Brûlart, Comte de Genlis, later Marquis de Sillery (1737-1793) and took up residence in his Paris apartment, subsequently becoming his mistress. Eventually, the Marquis gifted her an interest in his vineyard in Champagne and she sold its product (described by Danloux as “detestable”) as a wine merchant in London for her livelihood. Meanwhile, her close associations with Catherine-Rosalie Gerard Duthé, a notorious French courtesan who also posed for Danloux, suggest Roussée’s involvement in a more gallant line of work. Indeed, as perceived by an eighteenth-century audience, her portrait appealed to a certain gaze which, according to Portalis, “English modesty would not have tolerated.” It is clear from both his diary and his artistic output that Danloux’s creative talents intersected with an array of fascinating characters, Madame Roussée among them, at a time of revolution.