The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

Lady with Plumed Straw Hat

Jean-Antoine Laurent (attributed)

The expression in this lady’s portrait that originated in the late 1780s complies with the quiet sensitivity, propagated by Rousseau’s writings, which repudiated coquetting gallantry. The straw hat, nearly identical to that of Mme du Barry in the famous painting by Vigée-Lebrun, shows the yearning for the simple rural life. It is however with its ostrich feathers and silk ribbons, just like the lady’s silk dress and tulle veil, a product of the sophisticated Parisian world of fashion.

Not only with regard to the hat can the miniature be associated with Vigée-Lebrun’s painting of Mme du Barry. It was probably created by the same miniaturist who produced the copy in miniature of Vigée-Lebrun’s original which is located in the collection of the Louvre today under an erroneous attribution to Lafrensen.1 Attribution of the Tansey miniature2 and of the du Barry in the Louvre to the Lorraine miniaturist Laurent seems to be more convincing due to peculiarities of style and painting technique. 

B. P.

1 Cf. Jean-Richard 1994, p. 227, no. 412. Schidlof contested the attribution to Lafrensen as early as 1964, cf. Schidlof 1964, vol. 1, p. 472. A further copy of Vigée-Lebrun’s painting in miniature was fashioned by the miniaturist Lemoine, presumably around 1796. Cf. Jeffares 1999, p. 115, no. 123.

2 The miniature came into the Tansey Collection attributed to Nicolas Pinet; yet it does not possess the marked light-shade contrasts which are characteristic of that artist’s works.