Attributed to JEAN-ANTOINE LAURENT
(1763-1832)Portrait miniature of a young Girl, wearing white dress with blue sash and matching bonnet, gold necklace and holding a basket of flowers and fruit
Attributed to JEAN-ANTOINE LAURENT (1763-1832)
A young Girl, wearing white dress with blue sash and matching bonnet, gold necklace and holding a basket of flowers and fruit
Watercolour on ivory; dated 1799
Gilt-metal mount
Oval, 42mm (1.65in) high
£1,950
The coloured sash worn by the child here was not indicative of gender – with the most common colours being pink or blue. Although white might seem like an impractical colour, the cottons could be boiled. In the winter, the sitter in this portrait would have worn wool – but the flowers and white muslin dress show that this portrait was painted in the warmer months.
As with so much in this period, fashion for children and adults was dictated by the French, who by the date of the present portrait were at the start of their Revolution. This period of the 1780s/90s also shows adult women aping the fashion which had been the preserve of children. The actress Mary Robinson (known as Perdita after her most famous role) wore a white muslin dress sent her by Marie Antoinette, which became ‘the universal rage’. Scandalously worn by the Queen of France in a publicly displayed portrait, the English press called it the ‘Perdita chemise’ or “robe de la reine,” after Marie-Antoinette.
The likely artist of this portrait, Jean-Antoine Laurent, was born in Baccarat, where he became a pupil of Jean François Durand (b. 1731) and of Jean-Baptiste Charles Claudot (1733–1805). He began to exhibit at the Paris Salon in 1791, and was subsequently patronised by Empress Joséphine, Queen Hortense, Louis XVIII, and the duchess of Berry. He died of apoplexy, allegedly brought on by the announcement that he had been made a chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur in 1832.
Christie's, Geneva, 14 May 1991, lot 130;
Private Collection.
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