While I've done a cursory search for this beautiful woman, hoping to unravel the story this miniature painting lays out before us, it still needs a lucky link. It will probably come in French genealogy, and it's compelling enough to spend a day. Sometimes I think I should leave some of that sleuthing to the next owner. So let me give you what I know. Obvious drama, the painting is set in outdoor setting and 3/4 pose which was popular just in her time. While we talk, consider her face is just 1/2", chin to hairline, and those letters even smaller, and yet you can read the addressed folded pages and see the red wax seal on one. Most of these little painting have iconography, tell a story. From the simple addition of certain flowers to the 'fidelity' meaning of including a dog. One letter, near the dog, is addressed to a gentleman in Chartres, France. Perhaps you can make out the other. That they're included in her painting would be meaningful. Noted on the back, names and places. Perhaps Marquis and Marquessa of Culan, a commune/village in France which still boasts a tour of the Chateau of Culan, a Medieval fortress of a castle. The name Chivalier César de Pézé or Péré noted and that she is the wife of that person. Initial writing is "Mlle" Chivalier". Does it make you want to start the search for the rest of the story?
Very good to excellent condition for age and type, the painting might be older, c.1770s, based on fashion and manner of painting, and on back noting that she married in 1787. That would be my take on it. I have had paintings fashioned like this and dated from c.1760-70s. The painting is actually larger than most of its time, at 3.5" in diameter in its frame. Painted in gouache on thin wafer, which is backed in early hand-laid 100% rag paper upon which the dedication is written (back). Well preserved within the brass frame mat and under original convex cover glass, the wafer is complete and no chips nor hairlines of age. Better in person! Museum quality and period piece!
