Jean-Henri Cless (1774-1812) Portrait d'Une Jeune Femme Dans Un Paysage, Dessin Signé

Jean-Henri Cless (1774-1812) 
Portrait of a young woman in a landscape
signed "Cless fec" for fecit on the lower left 
Brown ink and brown ink wash on pencil
Size of the sheet : 31.5 x 22 cm
Size of the motive : 24.5 x 17 cm
very simply framed under glass without actual frame 32 x 22.5 cm

This pre-romantic portrait is typical for the style of the young woman's dress and hairstyle of the Napoleonic Empire period. The fact that she is sitting in a landscape is also typical. It is fully in the neo-classical style of the famous portraits of the empress Josephine, for example, which combines the romantic feeling of the landscape with an idealised antiquity.
The young artist - we know that he died at the age of 38 - is obviously following in the footsteps of his master, the painter Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), who also painted portraits of women dressed in the same way with studied poses, including of course the very famous Portrait of Madame Récamier.

Jean-Henri Cless was born in 1774 in Strasbourg, he died on March 15 , 1812 in the same town 
A pupil of Jacques-Louis David , he began to be active around 1800 and exhibited in Paris at the Salons from 1804 to 1808.
According to the Thieme-Becke  artistic dictionary , he returned to Alsace in 1811 , where many private collections hold his works.
Le Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris keeps six drawings and three miniature portraits.
The Musée Carnavalet in Paris keeps a drawing representing An artist's studio in 1804, called "David's studio", 
The Saverne Museum keeps a Portrait of Maurice Kolb signed and dated 1810.