Marie Françoise Augustin, née Guillaume

This portrait of an older lady bears the misleading inscription “Mme Perchet” on the reverse and was therefore offered for sale in the art trade under this name. It is, however, a portrait of Marie Françoise Augustin, the mother of the famous miniature painter Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin. The miniature was copied by an unknown student of Augustin from an oil painting by the master,¹ which the latter had painted in his hometown of Saint-Dié-des- Vosges in 1791.
Marie Françoise Guillaume (1730– 1799), daughter of George Guillaume and Marie Françoise Glez, married the master glazier Nicolas Denis Augustin in 1749. Their three sons were all destined to become painters. The oldest, Georges-Nicolas Toussaint, called himself Augustin Dubourg and worked in pastels and in miniature. The second brother, Jean-Baptiste Jacques, was the most talented of the three and is today regarded as one of the most important miniaturists. The youngest brother, Joseph Ange, painted portraits and religious themes in oils, although he did not achieve outstanding results.²
In this miniature, Marie Françoise Augustin is wearing a silk cape edged with fur and a bonnet fashionably decorated with bows. One may assume that Jean- Baptiste Jacques brought his mother’s costly garments for her from Paris. Marie Françoise was widowed in 1782, so it is unlikely that she would have been able to afford such luxury.³
B. P.