Lot Essay
Jacques-Joseph de Gault was for many years confused with his contemporary Pierre-Marie de Gault de Saint-Germain (b. 1756) until C. Jeannerat clarified the situation in a 1935 conference (see C. Jeannerat, 'De Gault et de Gault de Saint-Germain' in Bulletin de la Société de l'art français, 1935, p. 221-35). Jacques-Joseph specialized in grisaille and camaieu miniatures painted as bas-reliefs in imitation of antique cameos. Several snuff-boxes in the Musée du Louvre bear his signature as does the jeweled cabinet made for Marie-Antoinette at Versailles. Not only is he also recorded as a painter for the Sèvres porcelain factory from 1758 to 1760, but he also exhibited at the Salons of the Académie de Saint Luc and at the Salon de la Correspondance.