Aline Chassériau

Chassériau's Aline Chassériau of 1835, a portrait of his sister painted when the artist was seventeen, demonstrates his extraordinary precocity as a portraitist, the sitter's psychological presence and the painting's technical assurance far exceeding what might be expected from a teenage student. The portrait captures a young woman with affectionate attention to personality rather than social obligation, the face's slight irregularities preserved rather than smoothed. Chassériau would paint his sister repeatedly throughout his career, their close relationship providing him with a subject free from the formality of commissioned portraiture.

The young Chassériau renders his sister's features with a precision and sensitivity remarkable for his age. The warm palette and intimate scale, combined with Ingresque linear clarity, create a portrait of tender familial devotion.