Miniature family portrait with post mortem

Fine Arts

Identifier2024.11.7.3.FA.PA.1779.FR

Author

Jean Louis VILLAIN (French, active late 18th century)

Description

A circular tortoiseshell snuffbox lid, decorated with the miniature and mounted in a square wooden frame. The watercolor on ivory depicts a mother and daughter next to a bust of a presumably deceased man. The mother is dressed in a purple dress with a light pink bow on the bodice and translucent ruffles adorning the sleeves and collar. She embraces her daughter in her left arm and extends her right hand to rest on a pedestal on which is perched a bust of a man, presumably her husband. The girl wears a light blue dress with a pink bow on the bodice, holding a basket woven with pastel flowers. The brown wooden frame is later, probably mid-19th century.

Materials

Oil on ivory
Wood frame
Tortoiseshell

Origin

1779 France

Dimensions

Width : 2 cm
Length : 12.5 cm
Height : 12.5 cm