The album-monograph of Doctor of Art History Nina Nikolaevna Kalitina (1926-2018), which includes St. 230 illustrations, explores French portraiture, sculpture and graphics of the 19th century, examines the evolution of the genre, reveals its historical and artistic problems. Questions about the interaction of the portrait with other genres - historical, everyday, landscape; about the place of the portrait in various types of fine art and its relationship with the literary portrait, which reached brilliant development in France in the 19th century; on the features of the evolution of subspecies such as self-portrait and group portrait. Portrait works of leading masters of various directions are analyzed; the originality and originality of the figurative-plastic system of these works are revealed.