A beautiful little treasure within the outer frame, this stunning small portrait of a child seated in the forest with a sunrise or sunset forming in the distant sky. He holds some flowers, and the entire effect is just magnificent, really. If you understand how difficult this media is to master, you can appreciate that the enamelist who could produce it is a lifelong Master. I've done this art, and you begin with pots of muddy mauve to blue to gray, little reference at all to the color the suspended enamel powders will be once the kiln melts it into this glassine finished image. It all looks like mud on top of mud. The artist must know exactly what he/she is laying down on the plaque and how it will mix and layer to turn into this as it comes out of the kiln. I have such great respect for enamelists! This, then, much much more difficult than capturing a child's likeness in gouache on wafer, is just exceptional in all ways. Not the least of which is that you can truly tell this is a portrait and not just someone's image of a child. How in the world it looks like this little boy when his head is only 3/8"high is miraculous to me. And yet here he is, seated in a beautiful Springtime setting. One of my all-time favorites, this. Children are rare. This one, rarest of all!
Very good to excellent condition, small - measurements noted on our photos. The kiln-fired enamels do not have glass covers. Unless very treasured, they can scratch, be dropped and shattered (it's a little like finest porcelain once melted, or glass). I had never taken him out of his frame, but I could see there is a gold banding around the perimeter of the enamel so took it apart to find he is framed in 14k gold already, a smaller oval frame still with its bale. The back side of the enamel plaque is enameled in deep blue. A superb quality piece.
