With an elegant yellow silk brocade vest, dark jacket with high collar and a very French ascot, this young and confident gentleman looks out with a slightly raised brow and ever so subtle smile of contentment - in his station in life? At the future he's so sure life holds? Signed and dated 1814, this might have been a portrait made for his future bride, or for the family he leaves behind as he expands into his own future and wherever it would take him. Or is it the victorious face of a young Royalist who sees Napoleon I exiled to Elba, and knows his family and the old Royalist culture will be restored (Restauration). Knowing history can teach us much, but it can't fully explain this young gentleman. The artist captured his heavy brow, his youthful hairline and heavy but well-trimmed whiskers. All in a face just 3/4" chin to hairline.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. Over 200 years ago, many decades before photography, the portrait miniature was the only capture, memento for history. A lock of hair, perhaps. This one is pristine, kept perfectly beneath the original convex cover glass and within the old original wood frame. It's obvious it had a covered back, helping to keep it so well, and that has been removed. The frame does show age, but of course with more than 2 centuries, it's not so much. All measurements are noted on the photos.
