The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

Gentleman in Brown Coat with Stripes

Joseph Tassy

The little-known Joseph Tassy painted these portraits of a gentleman and a lady at around 17911. Both sitters are shown in front of a broad park landscape with trees, to which the painter added a balustrade and a female statue in the distance in the portrait of the gentleman. The gentleman turns his body and head to the right, but looks at the observer. He is wearing a brown coat with brick-red stripes and large gleaming buttons. The lady plays the coquette: she turns her head towards the observer and shows her breast and posterior in profile, emphasised by the fashion of the time. Her dress has a fashionable striped pattern and arose sprig is fastened to her neckline. Her tall, white bonnet is adorned with a blue and red rosette, which originally had a political significance but was probably considered a mere accessory in this context. Since the portrait of the lady is slightly larger than the portrait of the gentleman, it is uncertain whether they were actually intended to go together. However, it seems reasonable to assume that the sitters were somehow related to each other since the portraits were purchased as a pair.

B. P.

1 Although Tassy’s works were praised by some art critics, this was the only year in which he exhibited in the Paris salon. Cf. La Béquille de Voltaire, seconde promenade, 1791, p. 26; Lettres analytiques 1791, p. 76; Petites affiches de Paris 1791, CD 17/449, p. 552. At about the same time Tassy painted the portrait of Adélaïde-Eugénie-Louise d’Orléans with a harp (Musée Condé, Chantilly).