Putti Harvesting Wheat

In his unpublished list of miniatures in the Fredrick collection (1960), Edward Grosvenor Paine attributes this miniature to Piat Joseph Sauvage and dates it about 1780.

Born in Tournai, Sauvage studied painting in Tournai and Antwerp and became court painter in the Netherlands in 1774. Later that year he went to Paris and entered the service of Louis XVI and the prince de Condé, becoming a member of the Académie Royale in 1783. Much later, from 1804 to 1809, he worked as a porcelain painter at Sèvres. He was prominent in revolutionary activities but told the prince de Condé in 1814 that he had always been a royalist. He died in Tournai. Sauvage painted decorative grisailles imitating classical themes as well as miniatures en camaïeu.

[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Mrs. Leopold (Millie Bruhl) Fredrick, New York (by 1960–d. 1962; inv., 1960, no. 89)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 80.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In Miniature," August 29–December 28, 2014, no catalogue.

Edward Grosvenor Paine. Inventory of the miniatures in the Fredrick collection. 1960, p. 13, no. 89, attributes it to Sauvage, about 1780.

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, p. 108, no. 80, ill.