The identification of the sitter in the present portrait has been given on the basis of comparison with another miniature of Mademoiselle Saint-Val in similar guise by Vestier, signed and dated 1787. This earlier miniature was formerly in the collection of Madame Alfred Orban circa 1912 and was exhibited Brussels, Hôtel Goffinet, Exposition de la Miniature, 1912, no. 1163 where it was listed as 'Portrait de Mlle Saint-Val de la Comedie Française en vestale'. The Saint-Val name was more closely associated with the House of Molière who had among his actors two sisters who used the Saint-Val name as a pseudonym. By 1779 the acting career of the youngest sister, Pauline, had ended but that of her sister, Marie-Blanche, continued to flourish. It is possible therefore that the present sitter, painted both in 1777 and 1780, can be more firmly identified as Pauline Alziari de Roquefort (1752-1836).
For a discussion about the identification of the sitter and the guise in which she is depicted, see A-M. Passez, Antoine Vestier, 1740-1824, Paris, 1989, p. 298, no. 209, illustrated p. 299.