La Sultane

Pierre-Alexandre Wille, was the son of the German-born Johann-Georg (Jean-Georges) Wille, a leading engraver active in Paris, professor, and art dealer who became a member of the Academy in 1761, and official engraver to the king of Denmark and Frederick the Second.
Pierre-Alexandre Wille began his artistic studies at the age of thirteen with his father’s great friend, Jean-Baptiste Greuze. In 1774, Pierre-Alexandre was admitted to the Académie Royale, and exhibited at the Salon of 1775. Until the latter part of his career, Pierre-Alexandre worked under the stylistic influence of his first master, although he left Greuze’s workshop after only two years to train under Joseph-Marie Vien. Several of his gênre scenes, such as French Patriotism (1781) the Double Reward of Merit (1785), (now in the Château de Blérancourt, Mus. N. Coop. Fr.-Amér.) were engraved by his father. Another gênre scene was The Last Moment of a Beloved Wife. Although accepted in the world of academic artistry supported by the French crown and nobility, Wille became an ardent revolutionary with the falling of the Bastille. During this turbulent period, aside from creating a few poignant works, including his drawing of Danton Led to the Scaffold, now in the Musée Carnavelet, Paris, his later activities were barely documented.
Wille is now best known for his sensitively executed portrait drawings, mostly in red or black chalk. According to Maison, “Pierre-Alexandre Wille, as happens frequently with minor artists, was an infinitely more gifted draftsman than painter.” (see K.E. Maison, “Pierre-Alexandre Wille and the French Revolution,” Master Drawings, vol. X, 1972, p. 34).
This drawing of a lady, in Turkish dress, drawn with a combination of red and black chalk on white paper, can be dated to the late 1780’s by her dress. Although less emotionally forceful, our drawing is comparable to Wille’s red chalk portrait of the revolutionary figure, Charlotte Corday, which is signed and dated 1793 and formerly in the collection of Louis Brinquant.