Elegant, distinguished and handsome French gentleman with dark thinning hair and piercing gray eyes. Sidelong post but he gazes confidently at the artist and viewer. Costume dates him to c.1820-30s. An interesting almost 'grisaille' painting (monochromatic in grays), but for a tint to his eyes and cheeks to bring him fully alive. Painting is gouache on natural wafer, 2 3/8" x 1 7/8" oval, housed in the original 2 3/4" x 2 1/4" oval mat frame. Likely fit originally into a French wooden frame typical of the era and fashion, but a lot of those have been removed and presented to advantage with just the mat as frame as you see in this one. Back has an old paper seal, as you can see, which I very very carefully loosened enough to remove painting for full photos and to clean the cover glass, and then gently replaced it as it had been, but with a much happier view. His face is just 5/8", chin to hairline. An incredibly fine work of art, yet we have no signature of the artist.
Very good to excellent condition, some small evidence to the painting, particularly on his jacket, that old dust and perhaps a haze of moisture within the sealed image might have caused a little disruption. The inside of the old convex glass was quite incredibly dirty and necessitated removal and cleaning. To the eye, those very slight imperfections do not even show, but you will notice in our greatly enlarged photos. Mat is nice and has a bright finish, but not karat gold. No chips, no hairlines or wafer damage.
