French school, XIX century.

French school, XIX century.
"Female portrait".
Miniature in oil.
Measurements: 9 x 7,5 cm; 14,5 x 13 cm (frame).

Miniature in oil representing a lady with an Ivorian face, slightly puffy, with black and curly hair, which frames her facial oval with grace. She wears a dress with a neckline trimmed with tulle, in which the painter shows great skill in capturing the glazes.

Since the Renaissance, miniature portraits, framed in a circle or oval, were pieces for private contemplation. Considered as jewelry, in the seventeenth century they became pieces of personal adornment or as gifts, when they were mounted as jewelry. They were made in a great variety of techniques, such as oil on copper, tin or ivory, gouaches on parchment or cardboard and, since the 18th century, watercolor on ivory. This delicate art will be lost since the second half of the 19th century, in parallel to the development of photography. During the 19th century, the most common in this type of pieces were historicist representations, often set in the previous century.