Lot Essay
The present miniature was painted after the artist's marriage to Jean-Pierre Sylvestre Coster in 1781. Two slightly larger oval fixé-sous-verre still-lifes of flowers in an urn are illustrated and discussed in E. Kahng and M. Roland Michel, Anne Vallayer-Coster. Painter to the Court of Marie-Antoinette, New Haven and London, 2002, p. 221, nos. 152 and 153. They are both signed: one 'A. Vallayer-Coster' and the other 'Vallayer-Coster'. The latter is dated 1808. Two similar, circular works, both signed and one of which is dated 1809, are on pp. 221 and 222, nos. 154 and 155, respectively.