A woman standing with a harp was a standard portraiture format invented in the 1790s. David usually resisted such fashionable portrait conventions. Here, however, he used traditional imagery. He even included elaborate details of costume and the domestic interior.

Mademoiselle de Villeneuve was a cousin of Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte, whom David also painted in Brussels. This portrait was the last large-scale work of David's career.

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