A handsome young gentleman, beautifully rendered from a personal sitting with the artist, who has not signed the work. I look at him and while he's easy to place in time, it's impossible to know if he might have been a young French socialite, or a foreign Grand Tour traveler taking advantage of the ready artists of Paris. It is known that they hung about the Louvre, setting appointments and displaying examples of their work to entice a sitting and customer, and thereby support themselves as they also worked on their own art. Artists we know now as wildly famous were known to pick out a living by painting portrait miniatures about this time. I often wonder at who our artist might have "grown up" to be. This one makes me wonder. He could appear in a Manet painting, early on, before he started depicting more average people in his Impressionist work. But I digress. The frame is a period staple, burled wood with contrasting wood stringing, and a bright brass alloy mat to the aperture, with convex cover glass.
Very good to excellent condition. As I've said, there are 2 types of portrait miniatures: 1. a living person who sat for their portrait in real life, and 2. those done "après" famous works of art in the museums, fueled by the souvenir hungry Grand Tour travelers. This one is of the 1st variety, a man who lived a life we know nothing about, sadly enough. No identification. Measurement noted on the photos. No warp, no chips, no hairlines in the thin natural wafer. Presents beautifully, and is larger than most.
