A painter named Marianne is sent to rural Brittany in 1770 to make a portrait of Héloïse, a young woman about to be married to a Milanese gentleman. But Héloïse does not want to be painted ...

And later, when the first of Marianne’s portraits is revealed and Héloïse is (justifiably) critical, Marianne says “I didn’t know you were an art critic,” to which Héloïse responds wit ...

Octave, a young painter, realizes that his wife Marianne has left without a word or explanation. With his best friend Alfred he wanders the streets of Paris, in search of Marianne.

does not want her portrait done. She has, we’re told, “already gone through one painter”—although we never get the back story on that. Now Héloïse has found her Abelard in Marianne, who ...

Set in 1770 Brittany, in northern France, Portrait of a Lady on Fire tells the story of Marianne, a middle-class painter commissioned by a countess to paint the wedding portrait of her daughter ...