Lady in Blue Dress with Fur Collar

Soiron and Thouron (cf. inv. no. 10740) were the two most significant Genevan enamel painters in the last quarter of the 18th century. Both learned a sound craft in Geneva and later gained great fame in Paris. As to style, however, they differed strongly from each other. Whereas Thouron’s works are broadly and expertly painted, full of strength and colourful brilliance, Soiron’s portraits appear more intimate, more reserved and more sentimental. Furthermore, they used different painting techniques: Soiron applied the colour delicately and precisely with a pointed brush. In his works the brushwork is almost indiscernible and even the smallest details are meticulously conveyed. His early works, to which the present lady’s portrait belongs, portray the facial features with such an emphasis on their contours that they appear almost too sculptural. Later his style becomes softer and the contours are more blurred thus giving a more impressionistic effect to the portraits.

The artist painted the lady in the blue dress when he was roughly twenty years old. At the time he still lived in Geneva, where he teamed up with the enamel painters Frainet and Frégent after an apprenticeship with Teulon. He composed this portrait with the opposing turn of head and torso, a popular posture in rococo paintings, which contributes to the liveliness of the depiction. 

The lady wears the same dress and pearl jewellery as Marie Olympe Boidard née Oltramare (1752-1812) in an enamel miniature by Jacques Thouron from 1779.¹

B. P.