Portrait of Madame de Senonnes

Born into a relatively wealthy family, she married Jean Marcoz, a merchant draper, in 1802, and they moved to Rome in 1803, and had a daughter, Geneviève-Amélina Talensier that year.

[2] After her death in 1828, the portrait remained in the possession of her husband until 1831, when, pursued by creditors, he sent it to his elder brother, the Marquis de Senonnes, where it was kept in his castle in Feneu, in the west of France.

She is painted in bright red and gold colors, against a large, dark circular, mirror, lit by candle light, that reflects the back of her head and, especially, the curve of her neck.

[2] A number of small paper studies survive; the earliest of which show her reclining erotically on a sofa, the later sketches focus on the presentation of her upper body and chest.

[3] Among the sources that Ingres took inspiration from were Jacques-Louis David's Portrait of madame de Verninac (1799),[6] and Leonardo da Vinci's La belle ferronnière.