Portrait of a Young Woman

The attribution to Sauvage was made by Leo R. Schidlof in 1952 and was accepted by Richard Allen in 1977. Pierrette Jean-Richard (1995) tentatively agreed. The miniature must date from about 1790–95.

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. Louis V. Bell (until 1925)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 78.

Pierrette Jean-Richard. Letter. June 12, 1995, says it is perhaps by Sauvage.

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, pp. 13, 107–8, no. 78, ill., state that it must date from about 1790–95.