Louise Hersent, born Mauduit (1784–1862) - A young woman reading a letter

Louise Marie-Jeanne HERSENT, born MAUDUIT
(Paris, 1784 – Paris, 1862)

A young woman reading a letter. Study figure

Oil on canvas
Signed and dated in the middle on the right
100 x 81 cm
1812

Exhibition: Paris Salon of 1812 under number 624

Louise Mauduit is the daughter of the mathematician, professor at the Collège de France Antoine-René Mauduit (1731-1815). She was born in Paris on March 7, 1784.
Her artistic training began with an apprenticeship with the neoclassical painter Charles Meynier (1768-1832). This was followed by the teachings of the painter, student of Jacques-Louis David, Louis Hersent (1784-1862) whom she married on September 13, 1821, and to whom she owes part of her fame.
Well established as a portrait and history painter, she received various commissions from the Maison du Roi under the Restoration, including Henriette de France, Queen of England, arriving in France, currently on display in the hall of honor of the town hall of Dinan, or Louis XV visiting Peter the Great at the Hôtel de Lesdiguières on May 10, 1717, now on display at the Château de Versailles. We can then understand why Mrs. Hersent figures prominently in Heim's famous painting, Charles X distributing awards at the end of the 1824 Salon (Paris, Louvre Museum) alongside other rare female artists: Madame Haudebourt-Lescot and Madame de Mirbel.
In addition, Louise and her husband opened a private painting studio reserved for women at their Parisian home at 22 rue Cassette, the management of which she would later entrust to her best student Louise Adélaïde Desnos (1807-1878).
Louise exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1810 until 1824, where she obtained first-class medals in 1817 and 1819. Our painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1812.
Mrs. Hersent died shortly after her husband in Paris on January 7, 1862, and was buried next to him in the Père Lachaise cemetery.
Several of Louise's works were translated into engravings by Ambroise Tardieu (1788-1841).

Museums: Sydney, Angers, Paris (Louvre Museum and Carnavalet Museum), Dinan, Reims, Rennes, Versailles, Dieppe, Lisbon…