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Lot Essay
It has been suggested that the sitter is seen here in the guise of Fiesco from Friedrich Schiller's play The Genoese Conspiracy which was written in 1782.
Laban (supra) relates that the Esterházy miniatures recorded by him and then, in 1905, owned by four members of the Esterházy family, were initially part of a large collection of family miniatures formed by Count Johann (the sitter in the present portrait) in the 18th century. The collection remained intact until 1856 when it was owned by the sitter's son, Count Nicholas Esterházy.
Two smaller portraits of the present sitter by Füger are in E. Leisching, Die Bildnis-Miniatur in Österreich von 1750 bis 1850, Vienna, 1907, illustrated pl. IV, nos. 7 and 9, and in R. Keil, Heinrich Friedrich Füger 1751-1818, Vienna, 2009, p. 304, illustrated nos. 330 and 331, one of them being a head and shoulders length variant of the present miniature.
Laban (supra) relates that the Esterházy miniatures recorded by him and then, in 1905, owned by four members of the Esterházy family, were initially part of a large collection of family miniatures formed by Count Johann (the sitter in the present portrait) in the 18th century. The collection remained intact until 1856 when it was owned by the sitter's son, Count Nicholas Esterházy.
Two smaller portraits of the present sitter by Füger are in E. Leisching, Die Bildnis-Miniatur in Österreich von 1750 bis 1850, Vienna, 1907, illustrated pl. IV, nos. 7 and 9, and in R. Keil, Heinrich Friedrich Füger 1751-1818, Vienna, 2009, p. 304, illustrated nos. 330 and 331, one of them being a head and shoulders length variant of the present miniature.