Image: Getty Villa, Los Angeles
The Getty has drawn attention to Jacques-Louis David’s portrait of Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte, presenting the work through details of the sisters’ clothing and asking what their dress might reveal about them.
The painting depicts Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte, identified in the Getty’s accompanying text as nieces of Napoleon. The museum’s feature focuses on a close look at elements within the portrait rather than announcing an exhibition, event or new acquisition.
The post invites viewers to examine the sisters’ clothes as part of their reading of the image. Its brief prompt—“What do your clothes reveal about you?”—frames the portrait as an opportunity to consider how garments contribute to the representation of identity and family connection.
The work appears in the Getty’s online museum collection under the title ‘Portrait of the Sisters Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte.’ The collection entry identifies David as the artist. The available material does not provide a date for the painting, details of its medium or dimensions, or information about when it entered the collection.
The Getty’s feature was published on August 22, 2026. It offers a focused introduction to the portrait through the relationship between its sitters and the visual details of their dress, without providing exhibition dates or a related public programme.
