Portrait of Mademoiselle Rivière

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres executed this Portrait of Mademoiselle Rivière in 1805, depicting Caroline Rivière at about thirteen or fourteen years old. The oil on canvas measures 100 x 70 cm and shows her in a white dress with a fur boa, set against a watery landscape. Ingres described her as the "ravishing daughter" of his patron.

This portrait is the third of three Rivière family commissions. Caroline's father Philibert was a court official under Napoleon who sought to commemorate his family through the rising young artist. The three paintings were exhibited at the 1806 Salon, where critics attacked them for perceived "Gothicness," comparing them unfavorably to Jan van Eyck and Early Netherlandish painting.

Today the portrait is typically seen as a peak in Ingres's Neoclassical career. The contrast between her white dress and curved boa offended some viewers then, but now reads as elegantly rhythmic. Caroline's sister-in-law bequeathed the painting to the Louvre in 1870.