Portrait of Laure-Emilie-Felicite David, La Baronne Meunier

Laure-Emilie-Felicite David, the artist's daughter who married Baron Meunier, appears in this 1812 portrait now in San Francisco with the particular tenderness that David reserved for family members. Family portraits represent some of David's most relaxed and emotionally warm works, freed from the public obligations that shaped his great state commissions. His austere Neoclassical technique, which dominated his official and historical paintings, was perceptibly softened in portraits of those he loved: the palette becomes warmer, the modeling more sympathetic, the expression more animated. The Empire-period fashion the daughter wears — the high-waisted gown and classical hairstyle of the Napoleonic style — is rendered with the same precision David brought to all his figure painting, but without the severity of his more official works. The painting is now held at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where it demonstrates the personal warmth that coexisted with David's stern public artistic persona.

Paternal affection softens David's usually austere approach — the daughter's features are modeled with particular tenderness, and the color palette is warmer than in his political portraits. The Empire-period costume is rendered with characteristic precision but without the stiffness of official dress.