JEAN-BAPTISTE-JACQUES AUGUSTIN, dated 1827 and 1829

FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

Details

JEAN-BAPTISTE-JACQUES AUGUSTIN, dated 1827 and 1829

Two preparatory sketches for the miniatures of Mr and Mrs Arcos; he with curly hair wearing a coat, she with a curly Apollo-knot, wearing a dress with short puff-sleeves and belt; he inscribed "Mr Arcos de Mexiqo 1827. et Mme 1829", she "1829 Mme Arcos de Quito au Mexique à 4,000 lieux de Paris"; both pencil and ink heightened with white chalk on brown paper, rectangular -- he 156 x 131 mm, she 156 x 127 mm, gilt-metal frames. (2)

Provenance

By descent in the family of the artist's wife, Pauline du Cruet de Barailhon (1781-1865); sold by her grand-nephew Léon de la Fontaine de Coincy (d. 1920) to John Pierpont Morgan; New York, Collection of John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913); his sale, Christie's, London, 24-27 June 1935, lot 781 (part), sold 17.17 pounds; Lady Louise Lloyd-Jones; thence by family descent.

Literature

Henri Bouchot, La miniature française 1750-1825, Paris, 1907, p. 169; George C. Williamson, Catalogue of the Collection of Miniatures, The Property of J. Pierpont Morgan, vol. IV, London, 1908, p. 1148, nrs 752 and 753; Henri Bouchot, La miniature française 1750-1825, Paris, 1910, p. 220.

Lot Essay

The finished versions are probably the portraits of Don Antonio Arcos and his wife Doña Isabel Alegui from the Collection of the Conde de Clavijo, shown in the miniatures exhibition in Madrid in 1916, nrs 401 and 402.

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