Live Auction 5585Miniatures
Lot 91

AUGUSTIN-CHRISTIAN RITT (1765-1799)

Madame Potain, facing right in claret-coloured silk dress with white gauze fichu, wearing a heart-shaped locket, frilled white muslin bonnet with lavender silk ribbons in her powdered upswept hair

Closed30 April 1996

Price Realised

GBP 4,370

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AUGUSTIN-CHRISTIAN RITT (1765-1799)
Madame Potain, facing right in claret-coloured silk dress with white gauze fichu, wearing a heart-shaped locket, frilled white muslin bonnet with lavender silk ribbons in her powdered upswept hair
signed 'Ritt' (mid-right)
oval, 2 1/8in. (54mm.) high, set in the cover of a circular gold-mounted tortoiseshell bonbonnière, with the charge and discharge hallmarks of Jean-Baptiste Fouache, Paris, 1778/1779

Pierre Rousseau, (born 1750), the sitter's son-in-law.
by family descent.
David David-Weill (1871-1952), Neuilly-sur-Seine, no. 548.
Wildenstein's.
Sir Charles Clore (1905-1979), London.

Specialist note

Ritt records in his manuscript list that he executed a portrait of 'Mme Potain, âgée de 70 ans' in Paris in 1791. Madame Potain was the wife of Nicolas-Marie Potain (1713-1796), Architecte du Roi et contrôleur des bâtiments du château de Fontainebleau. He was succeeded in his practice by his son-in-law, Pierre Rousseau who built the Hôtel de Salm in Paris.