Painter with Paint Brushes and Palette (Hubert Robert?)

The sitter, who is roughly forty years old, has expressive eyebrows and is holding a palette in his left hand identifying him as a painter. In line with his occupation he is portrayed in simple work clothes. Over his clothing, a red coat and a white shirt with pleated jabot, he is wearing a grey smock to protect against dirt. His hair is coloured white by the abundant use of powder, leaving a white deposit on his shoulders.

The miniature in the Tansey Collection is known in several versions. A round variation displaying the left hand in full shows the painter holding several brushes as well as the palette.¹ This miniature had been erroneously attributed to Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, identifying the sitter as her husband Jean-Baptiste Pierre Lebrun.² Yet comparisons with portraits of the latter show no resemblance. It is more likely that the miniature represents Vigée-Lebrun’s painter friend Hubert Robert. In a portrait of him, created by the paintress in 1788, a gentleman is also shown with a plump face, brown eyes, cleft chin and bushy eyebrows with a marked wrinkle in between.³

The miniature was presumably copied from an oil painting. It was painted swiftly in broad brushstrokes by a practised hand. The model’s characteristic features are expressively portrayed. He looks at the beholder with keen, observant eyes; his right hand with the painting paraphernalia reflects a pride in his artistic proficiency.

B. P.