Madame Pasteur, née Madeleine Alexandre ( 1773-1841)

Madame Pasteur from 1800, now in the Louvre, depicts Madeleine Alexandre Pasteur — the mother of the future scientist Louis Pasteur, who was born in 1822 in Dole — during the Napoleonic era. Gros's portraits of bourgeois French women from this period document the social world beyond the military elite that dominated his most famous works. Madame Pasteur's portrait belongs to the category of private commissions that sustained Gros's practice between his ambitious state paintings: the battle canvases and royal portraits that secured his official standing were complemented by the steady income of bourgeois portraiture that served France's emerging professional and commercial class. Gros had trained under David and absorbed his master's disciplined drawing, but his own color sense — warmer and more vibrant than David's cool classicism — gave his portraits an appealing sensuality that appealed to clients who wanted both the gravitas of the Neoclassical tradition and the warmth of a more Romantic approach. The Louvre holds this maternal portrait as evidence of Gros's range, demonstrating his ability to move between the grandiose public scale of his Napoleon paintings and the intimate warmth of a civilian female portrait.

The female portrait shows Gros’s warm, sympathetic approach to civilian subjects. Careful rendering of costume and features creates an elegant image within the conventions of early 19th-century French portraiture.