An important historical miniature of Comte de Mirabeau, facing left in charcoal grey coat, striped velvet-silk pékin waistcoat, knotted white muslin cravat with jabot, powdered curled wig

Details

JEAN-ANTOINE LAURENT (1763-1832)
An important historical miniature of Comte de Mirabeau, facing left in charcoal grey coat, striped velvet-silk pékin waistcoat, knotted white muslin cravat with jabot, powdered curled wig
signed with initial and dated 'L. 1791' (lower right)
2 13/16 in. (71 mm.) diam., gilt-metal mount on a burr-wood bonbonniere bordered and lined with flecked horn (3¼ in. 83 mm. diam.)

Provenance

François Flameng Collection, Paris, in 1912.
Madame François Flameng; (+) Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 26-27 May 1919, lot 185 (as by Jean-Antoine-Marie [sic] Lemoine, sold FF 6,600).

Literature

P. A. Lemoisne, 'Les miniaturistes français à l'exposition de Bruxelles', Les Arts, 129, September 1912, pp. 15-16 (as by J. Lemoine, praised as 'beau').
L. Barthou, Mirabeau, Paris, 1913, illustrated pl. 7.
G. Le Breton, 'Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine [...]', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XII (4), 1914, p. 32 (as by Lemoine).
J.-E. Darmon, Dictionnaire des peintres miniaturistes [...], Paris, n. d. [1927], p. 82 verbo Lemoine.
Exhibition catalogue Paris, Louvre, Donation de D. David-Weill au Musée du Louvre. Miniatures et émaux, 1956-1957, p. 56, no. 117 (as 'peut-être de Laurent').
L. R. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe, Graz, 1964, I, p. 488 verbo Lemoine.
E. Bénézit, Dictionnaire [...], Paris, 1976, VI, p. 570 verbo 'Lemoine'.
M. Jeune, 'Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine', La Révolution en Haute-Normandie, 1988, p. 290 (as by Lemoine).
N. Jeffares, 'Jacques-Antoine-Marie Lemoine (1751-1824)', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, February 1999, pp. 128-129, no. 215 (as 'definitely not by Lemoine'), illustrated.

Exhibited

Brussels, Hôtel Goffinet, Exposition de la miniature, 1912, no. 926 (as by Jacques Le Moine, lent by François Flameng, Paris).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

A variant, also by Laurent, signed with initial and same date, is in the Louvre (P. Jean-Richard, Miniatures sur ivoire. Musée du Louvre. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 1994, p. 215, no. 396).
Honoré-Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau (1749-1791), was one of the greatest statesmen and orators of the French Revolution. Despite his ugliness, he was a notorious womanizer and libertin. His bad reputation resulted in Queen Marie-Antoinette's aversion against him which jeopardized his efforts to save the monarchy. His double-agent activities of both an official moderate Revolutionary and secret monarchist were revealed after his death when his safe was opened. It contained highly compromising papers which proved his corruption; Mirabeau was indeed secretly paid by the court. The discovery of his treason accelerated the cataclysm of the fall of the French monarchy.

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