Lot Essay
Jeane-Madelaine Le Double (Paris 1731-1810 Geneva), daughter of Jaques Le Double, engraver to the King of France, and his wife Catherine Fradin, married Jean Bouvier in 1757. The third of their five sons was the future miniaturist Pierre-Louis Bouvier. Élisabeth della Santa (Pierre-Louis Bouvier - Biographie, Geneva, 1978, p. 16) mentions another portrait of the artist's mother, of 1785, in a case inscribed by the artist's hand: 'J'ai fait un plus grand portrait de ma mère en 1800. Ce dernier est parfaitement ressemblant. Il a une main gantée et un schall lie-de-vin, robe grise.' It is tempting to think that Bouvier was referring to the present miniature.