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This round box houses a medal cast with bas-relief of Emperor Napoleon I. Inserted into the lid of the box is a round miniature with a (painted in gouache) mourning scene. The latter picture concerns the death of certain Maria: one sees her name carved against the stone of the monument, which is erected over the tomb of a recently buried woman. Clearly, both the medal and the mourning scene (it is painted in Neoclassical style typical for this type of subjects) are thematically interconnected.
To be precise, we are dealing here with a scene mourning the death of Napoleon Bonaparte's famous mistress, Polish beauty Maria Walewska, who died in Paris on December 11, 1817 (on this day, Napoleon was thousands kilometers away, in exile on the island Saint Helena in South Atlantic Ocean).
The date of Walewska's death (December 11, 1817) thus offers the lower time margin for the small gouache in the lid of the box; the upper time margin of this work's execution certainly lies not afar from 1817 (we assume that this scene was painted sometime in early 1818).
For extensive biography of Maria Walewska see the web and visit our #39943 for a portrait of Maria's second (official) husband, Philippe Antoine, Comte d'Ornano (1784-1863; after the couple was married in 1816, Maria changed her name to Comtesse d'Ornano).

This work strongly resembles a miniature by famous Warsaw miniaturist Józef Kosinski in collection of the Krakow National Museum (see our image nr.11), and with a very great possibility it could be another work of his.

Józef Kosinski (1753 Krakow - 1821 Warsaw) was a pupil of a Polish Court Painter Marcello Bacciarelli. After a study trip to Italy, Kosinski permanently settled in Warsaw, where he became a portrait miniature painter to the King Stanislaw August Poniatowski. He painted miniatures and small watercolor portraits, many of which are strongly resembling works of Josef Grassi, who worked in Warsaw from the late 1780s.

Provenance: private collection, Saint-Amas, Provence / France


Condition: miniature in good condition; medal is in fairly good condition, with several minor splits

Creation Year: ca 1818

Measurements: UNFRAMED: 6.7 cm x 6.7 cm / 2.6" x 2.6" inches
                                 FRAMED: 8.0 cm x 8.0 cm / 3.1" x 3.1" inches

Object Type: box with bas-relief medal and miniature

Style: Portrait Miniatures

Technique: medal: cast of medal laid on canvas and then on paper; miniature: gouache on paper

Inscription: -

Creator: Józef Kosinski-Attrib.

Creator Dates: 1753 Krakow-1821 Warsaw

Nationality: Polish


Themes:
FRENCH
POLISH
NAPOLEON
EMPIRE
BOX
CEMETERY
MOURNING
MEDAL
BAS-RELIEF
GENERAL
NEOCLASSICAL
STORY
EMPEROR
KING
MONARCH
LOVE
DEATH

SHIPPING OPTIONS:

***OBS: Austrian mail refunds cases of loss or damage with maximum EUR 500.

The shipping cost here is for an external full insurance of the item!


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