French Revolutionary era or just prior, this handsome young Noble's portrait gives nothing of the horror that is to come. Perfectly preserved in original frame and slightly convex cover glass, when I took it apart to clean the interior of the glass, I found the cut card within. In this era, quite a few of these young sophisticates did this, chosen for meaning and perhaps identification of a sort to his allegiances, which many did have to hide. His Navy tall collar jacket, ruffled open shirt and striped silk or embroidered vest are not a military uniform. There is some suggestion of the fashion of wealthy (en)titled Paris youth of 1795-99 who were called "Incroyable et Merveileuse" (Incredibles and Marvelous, men and women, respectively) with particularly fancy and a bit outlandish fashion, and a political position of protesting the beheadings. The one aspect of clothing that would definitely make him out to be one of that group would be that they usually had overly thick cravat/neck windings that expressed themselves as huge bandages as if they'd been beheaded and the head put back, bandaged. He's in an early wood frame, pulling him to mid-1700s so it's a bit hard to place him directly in either group fully (c.1750 or 1795-1799). Full measurements noted on the photos.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type, the frame is superb, as is the painting and cover glass, the brass mat as well. The painting is in rather thick impasto application of gouache (a water-based paint) and has very little loss at all, 2 minuscule white dots to outer edges. No chips or hairlines, breaks. A really superb collection piece, suitable for a Museum.
