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Dimensions:

box: height 3cm, diameter 6,3 cm

miniature: 5,7 x 4,8 cm

This French or Swiss, round, gold mounted, lacquer snuff-box, executed in mid-1790s contains in its lid an oval painted miniature portrait of a lady with a large coiffure with ribbons and roses who also bears rich gold jewellery.

The miniature is monogrammed and dated at the lower right hand corner - "h.D./1793" which means it is one more work in our possession of well-known, turn of 19th century French miniaturist Francois-Hippolyte Desbuissons.

Interior with painted straw work of flowers. Strick twice to the lid edge with later French "owl" control mark of 1890s.

François Hippolyte Desbuissons, called Hipolite, was born ca. 1740 and died after 1822. A pupil of Joseph-Marie Vien, Desbuissons studied at the Royal Academy of Painting in the early 1760s, then was a member of the Saint-Luc Academy in the mid-1780s. He is known for the very high precision of his miniatures, in particular his almost monochrome portraits in profile on a dark background, a bit like a trompe-l'oeil, made at the end of the 1780s, and close to the works of de Gault.

One of his stylistic characteristics is a fairly dark and pronounced eyebrow line. Another recurring motif are the delicate garlands of flowers and feathers, with which he adorns the hairstyles or clothing of his female models. He had a son, Joseph-Auguste (1770-1845), trained by himself then by David, who hesitated between an artistic career (he thus produced a certain number of miniatures, signed "Hipolite" like his father, with which they are sometimes confused) and military, and ended up becoming an actor.

Hippolyte-François Desbuissons spent a lot of time in Rouen, where he was probably befriended with Jean-Baptiste Descamps the Elder.

In 1978, Hipolite's biographer Bedouret finalized the list of his complete works, with only 23 (!) miniatures that were doubtlessly attributed to the artist (Bedouret had not seen our miniature! - B.W.). In this list, among the works from the period between 1778 and 1822 are those monogrammed with "hD" (sic!) and "hipolite" written in italics.

Provenance: private Anglo-French collection

Condition: good

Creation Year: 1773

Measurements: see above

Object Type: box with portrait miniature

Technique: box: lacquer with gold mounting; miniature: watercolor on organic wafer (oval)

Inscription: monogrammed and dated: h.D./1793