The Beautiful Greek Woman

A half-length portrait in costume shows a young woman in the fanciful “Greek” dress of the Parisian theatre, turban-wrapped and smiling, holding a small tambourine at her side. Nicolas Lancret painted The Beautiful Greek Woman in 1731–36; he inherited Watteau’s mantle as painter of the fêtes galantes, and here he brings the stage into the studio: the sitter’s pose and pearl-grey gown have the easy grace of a dancer, the muted silvers and pinks of the palette shimmering against a plain ground. Such “Turkish” and “Greek” fancy portraits were the height of fashion in the 1730s, and Lancret’s version is among the most charming — intimate, witty and light as air, a perfect distillation of the Rococo’s love of masquerade. The painting is held in the Art Institute of Chicago.