Born in Paris, Massé was the son of a goldsmith and jeweler. He studied with the painter Jean Jouvenet (1644–1717) and was admitted to the Académie Royale in 1717. In 1720 he met, and was influenced by, the Italian artist Rosalba Carriera (1675–1757) when she was in Paris: he is said to have copied a bacchanal by her and, following her example, became one of the first French miniaturists to paint on ivory. Jeanne Étienne Liotard (1702–1789) studied with him, and the Danish miniaturist Cornelius Hoyer (1741–1804) became his pupil in 1764. Massé had an immense reputation during his lifetime, but until recently few works by him were known. A group of portraits sold at Sotheby's, Geneva, November 16, 1989, nos. 8–12, and November 15, 1990, nos. 3–7 (all illustrated in color), gives a clearer picture of his style.
When exhibited in Brussels in 1912, this miniature was described as a portrait by Fragonard of the actor Préville; when sold in 1919, it was catalogued as a portrait of the actor Larive, French school, eighteenth century, on a box of the Louis XVI period. Olivier (1913), however, accepted it as a portrait of Préville, and treated it as a representative example of Fragonard's work, as did Schmid (1913), Boehn (1917), and De Mauri (1918). Comparison with miniatures attributed to Fragonard or his wife, Marie Anne Gérard (1745–1823; see The Met
60.14), shows that this attribution is untenable. The work does, however, resemble the recently discovered portraits by Massé in the excellence of its draftsmanship, the treatment of the costume and the shadows under the sitter's eyes, and the comparative restraint of the brushwork.
Pierre Louis Dubus (1721–1799), the son of a Parisian tradesman, began his career as a traveling player and then took leading comic roles in Strasbourg, Rouen, Dijon, and Lyons. Under his stage name, Préville, he became a leading actor at the Comédie-Française. He made his Paris debut in 1753 and continued to perform with great success until his retirement in 1786. Among his many roles he created the character of Figaro in
Le Barbier de Séville (1775) by Beaumarchais.
[2015; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]