The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

Girl in White Dress with Red Silk Belt

Jean-Mathieu Léger

Jean-Mathieu Léger presented this unknown girl directly from the front, thus enhancing her childlike and fresh nature, still innocent of any coquettishness. The immediate naturalness is matched by the grey background and the simple dress with a silk belt in pure red. The girl’s only adornment is her abundant curly hair, the lustre of which the artist rendered such that her curls seem to be flowing downwards like strands of fluid silk.
The full name and biography of the artist who signed his miniatures "Léger" could only be established in 2024. He was an exceptionally precocious painter. He decided to pursue a career as an artist at the age of 15 and entered the Royal Academy. He took lessons from the leading history and portrait painter of the time, Jacques-Louis David, but like his contemporary Jean-Baptiste Isabey, he decided in favour of miniature painting. It is regrettable that the talented painter's career ended too soon. Léger died in 1799 at the age of just 24.1
B. P.

1 Several of his miniatures are dated 1797, e.g. two portraits of ladies (Christie’s Geneva, 17 November, 1992, no. 453, and private possession in Paris) and a miniature of Pierre Pascal Marguerite (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen). We sincerely thank Henry-Noel Canival, Paris, for his research on this artist.