Detail of Sorrowful Woman of Ischia by an Unknown French Painter in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2010

Artist: French Painter, early 19th century

Title: Sorrowful Woman of Ischia

Date: 1822

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 15 3/8 x 18 1/2 in. (39 x 47 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Whitney Collection, Promised Gift of Wheelock Whitney III, and Purchase, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. McVeigh, by exchange, 2003

Accession Number: 2003.42.31

Gallery Label:

Here a woman, wearing a costume from the Mediterranean island of Ischia, despairs over the fate of her husband, a seaman. Such subjects, which combine the pathos of history painting and the exoticism of foreign cultures, developed out of the popular scenes of brigandry. Léopold Robert, one of the progenitors of this genre, was formerly thought to be the author of this painting; a false signature appears at lower left. The painting may be by Jean-Auguste Franquelin.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/europe...