ANNE VALLAYER-COSTER (Paris, 1744-1818) PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN IN A FUR COAT AND LACE BONNET Oval canvas Signed and dated on the left "Mlle Vallayer / 1777". Old restorations Moulded and gilt oak frame decorated with strings of pearls, stamped INFROIT and JME, French work of the Louis XVI period Portrait of a woman wearing a fur coat and lace bonnet, oval canvas, carved and gilded oak frame from the Louis XVI period, stamped Infroit, signed and dated on the left "Mlle Vallayer / 1777" 59 x 48 CM - 23,2 x 18,9 in. PROVENANCE Anonymous sale, Paris, Anaf, 4 December 2005, n° 138 Anne Vallayer was admitted to the Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture on 28 July 1770 as a still life painter. She exhibited at the Salons, where the critics, including Diderot, were dithyrambic. She soon began to paint figures and portraits on a more occasional basis, and became part of Marie-Antoinette's inner circle. She obtained accommodation in the Louvre. In 1781, she married Jean-Pierre Sylvestre Coster, a lawyer at Parliament and Receiver General. Along with Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, she was one of the few women painters to succeed in the era of Louis XVI.