MUNCIE, Ind. -- A nearly life-size neoclassical painting of a Greek woman aiding her wounded father is helping the Ball State University Museum of Art demonstrate the course of Western art.

French artist Mademoiselle Befort's 1809 work "A Young Woman From Thebes Tending Her Wounded Father" is one of several new acquisitions at the 62-year-old art museum.

The Friends Fund purchase is the museum's first good example of neoclassical painting, said Nancy Huth, assistant director and curator of education.

"Scholars consider the style pivotal," Huth explained. "In its compositional simplicity, many art historians see in neoclassicism a break with the past and the first germinations of modern art. This canvas is an important addition to the collection--one that will allow us to more clearly demonstrate the course of Western art."

In the painting, the father's discarded helmet and shield identify him as a soldier. The title indicates the setting is the ancient Greek city of Thebes, which 19th-century viewers associated with nearly ongoing battles and, ultimately, destruction under Alexander the Great, Huth said.

"The wounded soldier tended by his daughter may have reminded viewers of the importance of stoicism in the face of tragedy, and the virtue of filial piety," she noted. "With its prominent female figure in an active role, the subject may have also held special meaning for the painter."

Little information is available today about Mademoiselle Befort, and her given name remains a mystery, Huth said. She was recorded as a painter of mythological and historical subjects and is known primarily for the work the museum has acquired.

In Befort's day, only men could enroll in the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the official art school in Paris. Befort and other women hoping to pursue careers in art often hired tutors or enrolled in private studio schools, Huth said.

Befort was tutored by Gioacchin Giuseppe Serangeli, a pupil of the great neoclassical painter Jacques Louis David.

"She no doubt became conversant with the ideals of neoclassical painting through her tutor's connection to David," Huth said.

Meticulous rendering and painstaking detail achieved through nearly invisible brush strokes mark the neoclassical style and painting of the early years of the 19th century.

Befort's painting is also typically neoclassical in subject and mood, Huth said. In the image, a scene from ancient Greece is enacted by gracefully heroic, carefully constructed figures who manage emotional restraint despite the drama of the moment.

Befort exhibited the canvas in the annual French state-sponsored exhibition, the Salon, in 1810. Many artists, patrons and officials of the art academy believed themes from ancient literature and history prompted the most thorough demonstration of an artist's imagination and abilities, Huth said.

The Ball State Museum of Art is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. It is closed July 3-4. Phone: (765) 285-5242.