Under the soaring ceilings of his room and studio at the Villa Medici in Rome, Léon Pallière rested casually. He was a student of fine art, who had studied painting at the Parisian Academy before arriving in Rome for his education—as a “pensioner” of the French Academy. By 1817, when the intimate portrait was painted,…

The spring of 2022 was an extraordinary season for French art in the United States. At the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the exhibition “Poussin and the Dance” delved into the Baroque master Nicolas Poussin’s pictorial choreography and showcased a number of paintings executed in Rome during the 1630s. Meanwhile, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in…