Lady in Blue Dress with White Shawl

At the end of the 1780s, the French Revolution came to Arlaud-Jurine's home town and he was forced to leave with his friend Ferrière (the miniature painter) in 1792 to try his luck in London¹. This small portrait of a lady from the Tansey Collection, however, was created before this change of location which also marked a change of style in the painter's work. In Geneva, Arlaud-Jurine preferred a light gamut of colours in which he combined distinctly graded grey shades with bright pastel shades; moreover, he did not try to conceal his guidance of the brush. Later, Arlaud-Jurine abandoned the pleasant spontaneity and softness which had dominated his earlier works and followed the classicist rules by using clear structures, rich colours and a method which entailed the meticulous treatment of detail.

B. P.