Portrait de la baronne de Chalvet-Souville, née Marie de Broutin, Vincent

Painted in 1793 and held by the Louvre, this portrait of the Baroness de Chalvet-Souville, née Marie de Broutin Vincent, has a particular biographical dimension: the sitter shares the family name Vincent, suggesting a family connection between painter and subject that would explain the intimate quality of the work. The 1793 date coincides with the height of the Reign of Terror, when aristocratic identity was dangerous; the baronial title was a post-Revolutionary attribution and the sitter's identity as a member of the bourgeois Vincent family may have offered some social protection. The Louvre's holdings of the artist include several works from this period, and this portrait joins them as evidence of Vincent's continued professional activity through the most turbulent years of the Revolution. The psychological presence of the sitter, combined with the formal refinement of the execution, places the work among Vincent's most accomplished female portraits.

Vincent brings a quality of personal engagement to this portrait that distinguishes it from purely professional commissions. The color scheme likely favors the warm ivory and rose tonalities he often used for female subjects, with careful attention to the rendering of the sitter's dress and the arrangement of her hair.