Artist/Maker Anne-Marguérite-Joséphine-Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville (French, 1771–1849)

Seated Young Black Woman, verso: young girl reading a story to two children

ca. 1807-1814

Graphite, black chalk, and gray watercolor on paper

Sheet (irregular): 7 5/8 × 5 1/2 in. (19.4 × 14 cm)

Gift of Mark Emanuel

2018.42.20

Neuville's sympathetic, full-length, frontal portrait of a young black woman, her hands folded in her lap, reveals her constant interest in ethnicities. Probably drawn in New York City, it may be allied to her "Economical School Series." Likewise, the verso featuring a young girl seated, holding a book and reading to two children, may be linked to the same series, as well as to one of Henriette's most pronounced themes: people reading. Both reflect her interest in and support of education. About the Artist Born in Sancerre, France into an aristocratic family, Henriette, as she preferred to be called, received an education that probably included drawing lessons. At the fall of the Bastille in 1789, she and her father fled Paris for their country house, Château de L’Estang, where she began her artistic self-education. In 1794, during the height of the French Revolution, she married the handsome and hot-headed Jean Guillaume Hyde de Neuville, an ardent royalist who became involved in conspiracies to reinstate the Bourbon monarchy. In 1800, the couple was imprisoned and forced into hiding under aliases because of his role in the “English Conspiracy.” The baron was also condemned as an outlaw for his alleged participation in a plot to assassinate Napoleon. Fearing for her husband’s safety, the independent baroness attempted to disprove the charges. In 1805, she took her cause directly to Napoleon in a dramatic odyssey across Germany and Austria in pursuit of the French army, finally obtaining an audience with him in Vienna. Impressed with her courage, the Emperor allowed the couple to go into exile. They arrived in New York in 1807, where they stayed for seven years. During their second residency (1816–22), when her husband served as French Minister Plenipotentiary and was made a baron, they lived primarily in Washington, DC, where Henriette became an influential presence and celebrated hostess. After her return to France, the baroness seems to have retired her pen and watercolors. John Quincy Adams described her in his diary as “a woman of excellent temper, amiable disposition . . . profuse charity, yet judicious economy and sound discretion.”

DescriptionFull-length, frontal portrait of a young black woman, her hands folded in her lap; verso study of young girl with a book in her lap, seated and reading to two children.

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The Works of Anne Marguérite Joséphine Henriette Rouillé de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville

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