''The Vestal Virgin'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

. Its date is unknown, but Antoine Schnapper estimates it between 1784 and 1787, 1787 being the year given for it in the 1803 Lespinasse sale catalogue. Sophie Monneret suggests 1783, the same year as ''

Andromache Mourning Hector ''Andromache Mourning Hector'' is a 1783 oil-on-canvas painting by the French Neoclassical artist Jacques-Louis David. The painting depicts an image from Homer's ''Iliad'', showing Andromache, comforted by her son, Astyanax, mourning over her hu ...

'', perhaps in response to the creation of the Prix de Vertu. It is a half-length study of a vestal virgin and was rediscovered in 1909. Its attribution to David was contested by Gaston Brière, Klaus Holma and Louis Hautecœur, although the work is signed and mentioned in the painter's own list of works. Antoine Schnapper believed that David's authorship was evident in the painting's treatment of the figure's hand and robe. Since the 1980s the painting has been in a private collection in the United States.

Bibliography

*Louis Hautecœur, ''Louis David'', Paris, La Table Ronde, 1954 *Antoine Schnapper (ed.) and Arlette Sérullaz, ''Jacques-Louis David 1748–1825: catalogue de l'exposition rétrospective Louvre-Versailles 1989-1990'', Paris, Réunion des Musées nationaux, 1989 (), page 160 *Sophie Monneret, ''David et le néoclassicisme'', Paris, Terrail, 1998 (), page 68 {{DEFAULTSORT:Vestal Virgin, The Paintings by Jacques-Louis David 1787 paintings