The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

Die Miniatur Über den Künstler

The Tansey Miniatures Foundation

DE
The Miniature About the Artist

Lady in a White Dress with a Veil

Barbe Edmée Chardon, née de Vernisy

This portrait is one of only three known miniatures by the artist signing herself “Chardon”, who was born in Dijon in 1761 as Barbe Edmée Vernisy.1 That may be surprising as she was one of Augustin’s students and her works demonstrate a highly developed painting technique and great artistic expression.
This miniature portrait also exerts an unusually powerful impact on the observer. It shows an older lady in a white dress sitting on a chair, with her arms and shoulders covered by a semi-transparent white lace dress. A white lace veil adorns her head and carefully curled hair. Contrasting colour is provided only by a small piece of an embroidered ochre cloak over her right arm and by the chair’s armrest to her left.
The portrait shows a lady in mourning, as indicated unmistakably by the veil2 and the serious, detached facial expression. Chardon brings over powerfully the feeling of loneliness and abandonment. She conveys a state of great inner and outer quietness by placing the lady in front of a monochrome olive brown background that becomes a little lighter towards the centre. This makes the sitter appear caught in a sphere of her own. The perfectly rendered details of the clothing and the differentiated face expressing both warmth and grieving introversion give the portrait a strong lifelike quality.
J. S. O.

1 A portrait of a young woman, painted at around 1790, is offered in the art gallery of Boris Wilnitsky, Vienna. A portrait similar to this miniature in terms of expression of the young Claude Bénigne Paul Gouge beside a bird’s nest is kept in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm (inv. no. NMB 2598).
2 White was a colour of mourning in some regions of Europe until well into the 19th century. In France, some widows in the upper social classes wore white, similar to a dowager queen.