Portrait of a Young Woman as a Vestal Virgin

Drouais's 1767 Portrait of a Young Woman as a Vestal Virgin continues the fashion for disguised portraits — sitters depicted in the costume of a classical or mythological character — that was popular in French portraiture throughout the eighteenth century. The Vestal Virgin, with her pure white robes and her symbolic association with chastity and sacred fire, was a particularly appealing disguise for young women of good family who wished to project both beauty and virtue in their portrait. Drouais's combination of specific facial observation with the idealized costume created images that were simultaneously personal records and statements of the values the sitter's family wished to proclaim.

The oil on canvas combines classical drapery and attributes with Drouais's naturalistic flesh painting, creating a portrait that bridges the Rococo mythological tradition and the emerging neoclassical taste of the 1760s.