Once owned by the artist's brother Frédéric, it was given to the Musée du Louvre by Baron Arthur Chassériau and his wife in 1918.

[1] Aline (born Geneviève) Chassériau posed for this portrait when she was thirteen years of age, and the painter sixteen.

She wears a brown cloak with a white collar, and looks directly at the viewer with her hands crossed before her.

The refined technique of the portrait was influenced by Ingres, with whom Chassériau had recently studied, and Italian Renaissance masters Raphael and Bronzino.

[3] Chassériau's first mistress, Clémence Monnerot, later recalled: "Adèle, Aline and I were Théodore's models for many years.