Women's study

Demadières-Miron's tenure as director, between 1838 and 1852, marked the entry of contemporary artists into the museum. Aimée Brune-Pagès may already have been aware of this when, in 1839, she exhibited at the Amis des Arts d'Orléans her Women's studywhich was acquired for the collections. Her reputation was already well established, in genre painting as well as history, for which she had trained in Charles Meynier's studio for women. The revival of genre scenes offered her a field for experimenting with human passions, with literary subjects such as The Poor Girlafter Alexandre Soumet (1829) and Grandma, after Victor Hugo (1831).

A Young Girl Learning of Her Husband's Death, 1834, brought tears to the eyes of Salon visitors, who, like the critics, revelled in her trademark pathetic grace.

Sometimes in fashionable compositions, such as Le Sommeil and Le Réveil in 1831, in the tradition of Claude-Marie Dubufe, sometimes in historical subjects such as Silvio Pellico in Venice (1835) or Leonardo da Vinci painting the portrait of the Mona Lisa (1845), she demonstrated her ability to tackle all registers, with an ease that earned her a second-class medal in 1831 and a first-class one in 1841, and the regular acquisition of her paintings for provincial museums.

From 1841 onwards, it was through religious subjects, as part of history painting, that she found a way to guarantee the decorum required of a woman. Moses saved from the waters (1841, Musée de Bordeaux), The Resurrection of Jairus' Daughter (1842, Musée de Carpentras) and The Daughter of Jephthah (1846, Amiens, Musée de Picardie), set women's critics ablaze, who saw Aimée Brune-Pagès as the torchbearer of the recognition that should be accorded to women. L'Women's study is undoubtedly preparatory to a composition in progress, which she dares to turn into a piece of pure painting devoid of narrative.