The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

possibly Isabelle of Bourbon-Parma (after Nattier)

Jean-Daniel Welper (attributed)

This young lady in a white dress with a blue bow and plum-coloured shawl was painted in front of a sky and trees. She turns her torso gracefully to the right but looks directly at the spectator with an endearing candour. The cool shades of background and clothing allow the delicate pink of her flesh to stand out, bright and warm.

The miniature was produced after a painting by Nattier, but no direct model is known. The pose and the capriciously crinkled silk shawl bunched over hershoulders are found in numerous portraits by the artist.1

The sitter bears resemblance to Isabelle of Bourbon-Parma, the eldest daughter of Louise Elisabeth of France and Philip of Bourbon.2 Admittedly she did not have blue eyes, but brown. A later miniature, however, painted after the same original by Nattier,shows the lady with brown eyes,3 so the identification as Isabelle of Bourbon-Parma is still possible. The artist who painted this miniature might have granted himself some artistic licence in this respect. 

B. P. 

1 The Comtesse de Ranes (1742) was painted almost identically in a picture by Nattier. Cf. Salmon 1999, p.28, no. 26. Ólafur Thorvaldsson, Cambridge, refers to a miniature of the marquise des Nétumières, where the sitter is similarly dressed (see Galerie Heim, Basel, https://galerieheim.com/medias/NATTIER_Portrait-Marie-Rose-Larlan-de-Rochefort-Marquise-des-Netumieres.pdf). Nattier’s portrait of this lady was painted in 1748 (Christie's New York, 14 October 2021, no. 53, the sitter differently dressed). A smaller version of the Tansey miniature was auctioned at Drouot, Paris (Pierre Bergé), 5 December 2018, no. 6.
2 Cf. for example her portraits painted by Nattier. A miniature, presumably representing Isabelle of Bourbon-Parma (Christie’s London 24 May, 2000, no.93) proves consistent as well. We are grateful to Jean-Jacques Petit and Laurent Hugues, Convervatoire du Portraît du Dix-Huitième Siècle, Paris, for their research into the sitter’s identity. Ólafur Thorvaldsson, Cambridge, states that due to insufficient resemblance and the fact that there is no portrait by Nattier of this type representing Isabelle of Bourbon-Parma, the girl in the miniature must be someone else. We are most grateful to him for his research and information on this portrait, especially also for his documentation on provenance and literature.
3 Wilnitsky, art dealer in Vienna (2008).