The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

Gentleman with Headscarf with White, Red and Blue Pattern

Jean-Marie Ribou

Though this was formerly thoughtto be a portrait of Thérèse Elisabeth Le Ray de Chaumont, we believe the sitterin this miniature is a young gentleman:1 his broad cheek bones withsideburns, his chin and the Adam’s apple hinted at suggest a male physiognomy. Thesitter wears an open-necked shirt with a jabot; his tresses of hair areunpowdered and partly covered by a headscarf with a blue, white and redpattern. All these elements suggest that he is a young Revolutionary who wantedto show his political attitude in his outward appearance. However, one had to exercise great caution when doing so; things thatwere politically correct one week could be frowned upon the next,and could even endanger one’s life.
More than forty small-format portraits in oil by Ribou are known but only a fewminiatures. His full name and some information about his life have only recentlybecome known.2
B. P.

1 Cf. Jeannerat 1957, p. 344. Jeannerat did not recognise that the barely legible signature was Ribou’s and therefore ascribed the miniature to the French school. Cf. a similar portrait of a gentleman with a striped Foulard by Ribou (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille).
2 They show ancestors of the Bourbon dynasty and were painted at around 1775 (Musée Condé, Chantilly). For information on Ribou cf. Garnier-Pelle 1995, pp. 108-127.