View of the Gardens of Villa Medici, by Michel Martin Drolling, 1811-16

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Michel Martin Drolling (7 March 1789, Paris – 9 January 1851, Paris), French history and portrait painter. The son of Martin Drolling and the brother of Louise-Adéone Drolling, he studied first with his father, and after 1806 with Jacques-Louis David. He won the Prix de Rome in 1810. Elected a member of Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1837, he became an influential teacher at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

Portrait du général de La Fayette dans le parc du château de La Grange-Bléneau, by Louise-Adéone Drolling, 1830

The château de La Grange-Bléneau, in the Seine-et-Marne department, southeast of Paris, came to La Fayette through his marriage and was his home until his death.  It has been preserved as a monument historique.
 
The famous general, hero of the American Revolution, and key figure in the French revolutions of 1789 and 1830, was seventy-three when this portrait was painted; the embarrassingly red hair of his youth has become, at this late date, suspiciously black.

Portrait d’enfant dans un intérieur, by Louise-Adéone Drolling, circa 1830s

This is such a charming little painting, only sixteen by twelve and a half inches.  The muted color, the quality of light - maybe morning, maybe afternoon - and its lengthened shadows.  The slightly bored aspect of the child - despite the cropped hair, probably a girl - who holds a long cord that is attached to some sort of object lying on the floor.  The richly plumed hat tossed onto the chair; left there by the lady of the house?  And then the cat, sitting on the heavy base of the console table and gazing into the mirror.  At its own reflection or, most likely, back out at us, the way a cat will.

Father and daughter and the light from a window

At the Window, by Martin Drolling, date unknown.

The model - who is making a tracing using the light from the window - is the artist's daughter, Louise-Adéone Drolling (1797–1834), also known as Madame Joubert, who was a successful artist in her own right.  Only a few years later, she painted a very similar painting, in a very similar - the same? - setting.

Interior with Young Woman Tracing a Flower, by Louise-Adéone Drolling, by circa 1820-22.