The Miniature, Portrait of Intimacy

Far from being just "a small painting", to be placed among trinkets, the miniature is a work of art in its own right. It appeared in England, at the court of the Tudors where, under the reign of Elizabeth I, its role was essential to politics and to the celebration of the royal persona. Linked to literature and poetry, it acquired a scholarly and emblematic meaning. Precisely because of its reduced dimensions, it played a major role in the history of society and sentiments. Easily hidden, offered or stolen, carried on oneself, exchanged between lovers, parents or friends, it was the precious testimony of emotion. An image-memory essential in times of separation, it also often became even more precious after death.

Mounted as jewelry, present on or inside a box or in a setting to escape prying eyes, accompanied by the hair of loved one, it was ardently loved, as evidenced by literature and paintings. It was also a diplomatic gift between sovereigns, even if its connotation remained sentimental. Painted on ivory from the second half of the 18^th century, it was subject to a craze which affected all classes of society and that the Revolution and then the Napoleonic wars would only amplify. In this book, its various roles are described, accompanied by an evocation of the most talented and original artists who practiced this art, in England, in France and throughout Europe where the miniature reigned until the middle of the 19^th century. Between the end of the 18^th and the beginning of the 19^th century, its golden age, it was created using the physionotrace, then by small portrait engraving, and then came the miniature on hard porcelain which was developed and perfected during the first half of the 19^th century.

From 1850, photography gradually replaced the miniature which, before giving up its place, tried to adopt the style of these new portraits. Very abundantly illustrated, the book introduces previously unknown, exceptional items from private collections and reveals some unpublished masterpieces from the Museums of Decorative Arts of Paris and Bordeaux, from the Cognacq-Jay museum, from the Frits Lugt (Fondation Custodia) collection, and from foreign museums, notably the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Prefaced by Emmanuel de Waresquiel, this panorama of the small portrait in all its forms is accompanied by texts from three specialists: Fabienne Xavière Sturm, using Louis-Ami Arlaud-Jurine's studio notebook, publishes the secrets of one of Geneva's finest miniaturists. Claude Tanner, restorer of small portraits on ivory, gives advice for their conservation and restoration. Chantal Bouchon evokes the personality of the great collector and donor Lefebvre of Viefville.

• Size: 22 x 29 cm
• 254 pages
• Hardcover
• ISBN: 978-2915542349

Text in French only