A young Lady, facing right in white dress with frilled border, fichu, white bandeau in her long powdered curling hair

Geneva-born Franois Ferrière left his home town for London in 1792 where he remained until his departure for Moscow in 1804. The present miniature is an excellent example of his English period. Four other portraits dated from 1795 to 1801 are in the Musée de l'Horlogerie et de l'Emaillerie, Geneva, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue L'âge d'or du petit portrait, Bordeaux, Geneva, Paris, 1995-1996, pp. 178-179, 232-233, nos. 118-121. Among the three miniatures by Ferrière in the Victoria and Albert Museum is a fine portrait of an officer, painted the same year as the present miniature.