The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

Gentleman with Letter

Jean Philippe Goulu

This portrait presents a young man holding an open letter in his hand on which “A Monsieur M. Poiron/A Buenosaires” is clearly legible. Although it cannot be ruled out that the sitter was called Poiron, the Argentinian art historian Eduardo Schiaffino proved that it is far more probable that the work is a self-portrait and that the inscription is a dedication to the addressee of the miniature. According to his research, the picture was given to a former student of Goulu (apparently by Poiron himself) who later gave it to the collector Dr Eduardo Pérez who in turn left it to the Museo de Bellas Artes1 described as “autoretrato”.2Jean Philippe Goulu, who passed himself off as Frenchman while living in Argentina, was probably born in Geneva between 1788 and 1795. Being one of the best miniaturists of his time he worked as an artist and teacher in Buenos Aires when creating this portrait, which is equally impressive in its technical perfection and its emotional content reflected in the sitter’s facial expression.

D. O.

1 Due to legal disputes it came onto the market through the Roseti family. Later it came into the possession of the museum for a second time and was presented as self-portrait in the 1930s. Cf. Schiaffino 1933, pp. 67-68, and Schiaffino, La Biblioteca, vol. 1, p. 359 (no date or place).
2 The result of this research is all the more convincing as it is highly probable that Goulu’s student also gave the work to the collector Eduardo Pérez as a self-portrait. Since Pérez did not pursue a business interest when leaving it to the Museo des Bellas Artes there is no reason to doubt its description as “autoretrato”.