Portrait of a young woman, said to be the artist’s wife, Marie-Victoire Jaquotot, her back to a window

Refined in execution, this female portrait is a reminder of Leguay’s schooling as a miniaturist and the works he exhibited as such at the Salon between 1795 and 1799. He was also active as a painter on porcelain for the manufacture in Sèvres. The woman in the drawing has been identified by some as Marie-Victoire Jaquotot (1772-1855), the artist’s second wife and one of his pupils. She is the author of several self-portraits, including a gouache on ivory in the Louvre (inv. RF 377). The similarities between that portrait and the present one are not pronounced. In the 1920 sale of Alfred Beurdeley's collection, the attractive model is left unidentified, though the provenance indicates that the drawing came from the artist’s family.