Portrait of a lady, seated in a landscape, in a white dress holding a straw hat

A pupil of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Blondel was a skilled draftsman who became a fashionable portrait painter and regular exhibitor at the Paris salons. A winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1803, he earned considerable recognition during his lifetime and received numerous state commissions, including allegorical works at the Palaces of Versailles, Fontainbleau and at the Louvre.

The present portrait of a fashionably-dressed lady seated in a landscape is typical of the artist's elegant, classically-influenced style. It is easy to see why Ingres was impressed enough by Blondel's talent that he invited Blondel to spend several months as his guest in Rome nearly a decade after this painting was executed.