A lady, in black and blue Louis XV robe à la française, white lace cap with blue ribbon bow, powdered hair

The present miniature is a copy after a painting in the Louvre (INV. MI 1132. Legs La Caze) traditionally known as Mme. Lenoir holding a book. The painting had been erroneously attributed to Chardin, Greuze, Duplessis, and Tocqué. Most recently it has been convincingly reattributed to Voiriot by Guillaume Faroult and Catherine Voiriot (see exhibition catalogue 1869: Watteau et Chardin entrent au Louvre. La Collection La Caze. Chefs-d'oeuvre des peintures des xviie et xviiie siècles, Paris, Louvre, 2007; Pau, musée des Beaux-Arts, 2007; London, Wallace Collection, 2008). See also N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, London, 2006, p. 605, unillustrated, among the anonymes, which Mr Neil Jeffares now considers to be an autograph version by Voiriot. We are indebted to Mr Neil Jeffares, London, for the identification of the original painting and his help in the cataloguing of this miniature.