Lot Essay
The present portrait, or an identical version, was sold Sotheby's, London, 30 May 1977, lot 18 (in a different frame). The catalogue L'Exposition de la Miniature à Bruxelles en 1912, Brussels and Paris 1913, features as no. 1041, pl. XLV, no. 202, another identical work from the Collection of E. Stern, Paris. The present miniature will feature in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on Quaglia: C. Parisio, Ferdinando Quaglia (1780-1853) da Piacenza a Parigi, Brescia, 2012, no. 14, pl. 26, illustrated in colour pl. V. A larger version by Quaglia, signed and dated 1814, in which the empress is depicted in similar dress to the present miniature, is in the Wallace Collection (see G. Reynolds, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Miniatures, London, 1980, no. 235, illustrated p. 251).