The Beautiful Greek Woman

Nicolas Lancret · 1731–36

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

70 × 51.6 cm (27 9/16 × 20 5/16 in.); Framed: 94.7 × 75.6 × 11.2 cm (37 1/4 × 29 3/4 × 4 3/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Rococo

Painted between 1731 and 1736, *The Beautiful Greek Woman* is a striking example of the Rococo taste for exotic subject matter — a richly costumed figure rendered with the soft luminosity and decorative elegance that defined fashionable French painting of the era. Nicolas Lancret was one of the leading painters of fêtes galantes in eighteenth-century Paris, a genre he developed alongside his contemporary Antoine Watteau. Where Watteau leaned toward reverie and melancholy, Lancret brought a warmer, more sociable sensibility to his figures. His handling of fabric is particularly accomplished — silk, fur, and embroidery rendered with a lightness that belies the technical discipline underneath. This portrait reflects a broader Rococo fascination with the Ottoman world and Greek costume, which became fashionable among Parisian collectors and patrons during the 1730s. Lancret was elected to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1719, specifically as a painter of fêtes galantes — a category created largely to accommodate the new mode he and Watteau had established. Our hand-painted oil reproduction faithfully recreates Lancret's delicate brushwork, his characteristic palette of warm flesh tones and jewel-like drapery, giving you a piece that holds its own as a work of craft while connecting directly to the original in Chicago.