Jean-Baptiste ISABEY (Nancy 1767-Paris 1855) et... Lot n° 18

Portrait of Duke Mathieu de Montmorency Engraving after Isabey "died at 3 o'clock on Good Friday 1826, dedicated to the king by his very humble, very submissive and very faithful Isabey" 40 x 29 cm. We scatter this beautiful collection of drawings and miniatures by the artist Jean-Baptiste Isabey, and some works by his son Eugène, a romantic painter. Gathered by a direct descendant of the artist, the works presented today illustrate well the talent of the "Painter in miniature", as it is soberly engraved on his tomb of Père-Lachaise in Paris. Trained with Jean-Baptiste Claudot and Jacques-Louis David in Paris, his skill and finesse enabled him to quickly become one of the favourite portrait painters of the Directoire and then of the Empire. He will remain above all as the great representative of French miniaturist painters, and succeeded in bringing to the forefront this genre, which had until then been scorned by amateurs. Set in boxes or precious frames, his portraits on ivory became objects of art as much as works of art, and were much sought after by his contemporaries. Endowed with a great work force, Isabey also seeks to seduce a less fortunate clientele with the production of small black stone portraits often enhanced with watercolour. Among Jean Baptiste Isabey's scattered works is a beautiful portrait of Empress Marie-Louise mounted on a box. The small miniature representing Eugène de Beauharnais viceroy of Italy touches us by its quality of execution and its psychological depth. You will also be able to admire a study of heads in pen for the drawing of the Congress of Vienna kept at the Louvre Museum as well as a beautiful black stone miniature depicting General Pichegru.