This fine profile portrait miniature of a Rococo lady was executed in the last quarter of 18th century and have fully physiognomic resemblance with other famous images (in miniatures and oils) of French Queen Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793). Due to the fully identical style and time of creation of other identical profile miniatures by the same artist and also considering the fact that the artist was the court artist of Marie Antoinette and repeatedly wrote her miniature portraits, we attributed our miniature to the hand of French miniature painter Jacques-Joseph De Gault (1738 -Paris - after 1812). Very similar profile miniature of Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte (1778–1851), daughter of Louis XVI, is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

De Gault (Degault) was the member of the Academy De St-Luc, in whose Salon De Gault is represented 1774 with meticulously executed PORTR, among other : Dame tenant une rose and the simp; Petit garçon tenant son bonnet. At 1788/89 he painted the Oval agate plate of the lid of a stone tabatiere with the mythology of a fine gold frame. Simp. Diomedes and Odysseus Rob the Trojan. Palladiun (sign. J.J. De Gault; 1997 in the art trade). In London, there were also two mythodological works in 1913. Simp. (including a triumph of Bacchus) offered for sale. – since D. s first name still unknown until a few years ago, seems to have been, he is in the literature often confused with the painter and miniature painter Pierre Marie Gault de Saint-Germain.

Literature: Lexicon by Saur; Darmon, 1927; Bénézit III, 1976. – Lemberger, 1911; Guiffrey, 1915 (Repr. 1970); A. Bara, Bull. of the Mus. Royaux d ' Art et d ' Hist. De Belgique 1947, 50-61; J. Nimmergut/A.-M. Wager, Min., cans, M. 1982; Glass, shine, color. Variety of Baroque Hinterglaskunst in Europe of the 17th and 18th centuries (k), Murnau 1997.

Provenance: Auktion House Dorotheum, 2015.

Inscription: unsigned, on the backside inv.number of a collector.

Technique: gouache on ivory, original period fire gilt bronze frame.

Measurements: unframed w 2 x h 2 3/8" (5 x 6 cm); framed w 3 1/4" x h 5 3/4" ( 8 x 14,5 cm).

Condition: very good.