Portrait of a Woman with Tapestry Work

The miniature was received at The Met without an attribution. In 1965 E. G. Paine tentatively ascribed it to J. B. J. Augustin; in 1977 Richard Allen described it as of the school of Augustin, about 1800, and in the same year Edwin Boucher suggested that it might be by a Swiss painter, remarking that it resembled the work of François Ferrière (1752–1839). This miniature is an accomplished piece of about 1800–1810, showing the influence of both Isabey and Augustin in their republican and classical manners. It is perhaps not of sufficiently high quality to justify an attribution to Augustin.

Augustin was born in Saint-Dié, near Nancy, where he studied with the painter Jean-Baptiste Charles Claudot (1733–1805) who also taught his younger rival Jean-Baptiste Isabey. He moved to Paris in 1781, where for the next twenty years he painted highly animated miniatures. His success was diminished by the more extensive patronage given by Napoleon I to Isabey. He was made chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1821 and became painter-in-ordinary to Louis XVIII in 1824. He died of cholera in Paris.

[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

The ivory, which is irregular in shape, was mounted on gesso-covered composition board before the miniature was painted. The model's dress, the tapestry on which she is working, and the table legs continue into the gessoed extension. The ivory is slightly cockled and has shrunk from side to side, exposing cracks through which the white gesso ground could be seen. It was determined that the original dimensions should be preserved and the frame modified to mask the cracks. A new glass was supplied, an additional painted molding was inserted into the frame, and the miniature was set between a new ragboard spacer and mount.

[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Moses Lazarus, New York (until d. 1885); his daughters, Josephine and Sarah Lazarus, New York (1885–1888/95)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 170.

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. 148, no. 170, colorpl. 170 and ill. p. 148, call it "an accomplished piece of about 1800–1810, showing the influence of both Isabey and Augustin in their republican and classical manners," but note that it "is perhaps not of sufficiently high quality to justify an attribution to Augustin".