Portrait of Euphrosine Virginie POSTEL
Fine Arts
Inventory number
2026.4.24.4.FA.GR.1814.FR
Description
Pastel portrait depicting Euphrosine Virginie POSTEL in a profile view against a black background.
Her hair is styled in a braided updo secured with a black comb, revealing her hoop earrings made from coral and pearls. Euphrosine's black dress has short puffed sleeves and an empire waistline, emphasized by a black ribbon. Underneath, she wears a white fichu with a v-neckline to cover her decolletage. The fichu features a layered neck ruff at the collar made from broderie anglaise.
Euphrosine Virginie POSTEL (1793 — 1857) was born into a Norman bourgeois family as the youngest daughter of Augustin POSTEL (1749–1833) and Bernardine PLANQUETTE (1755–1823), daughter of a naval helmsman. She grew up in Le Havre alongside her siblings, among whom her eldest sister Louise Antoinette POSTEL (1788–1819) died young at the age of 30. On 8 June 1818 she married Pierre Brice FONTAINE (1787–1859), the couple had six children together, several died in infancy or early childhood. Only her youngest son, Jules FONTAINE (1826–1912), survived to old age. Euphrosine Virginie spent her entire life in Le Havre, where she died on 5 December 1857 at the age of 64.
Materials
Pastel
Paper
Wood frame
Origin
1814
France
Dimensions
Length : 23 cm
Height : 33 cm
Related object
Portrait of Louise Antoinette POSTEL