Louis Lié Périn-Salbreux

Elderly Gentleman with Letter

An elderly gentleman, holding a letter in his hands, stands in front of a wildly overgrown landscape scenery.His look is extremely friendly and even contains a touch of tenderness.He has his right hand on his heart, thereby expressing his emotion about what he had just read. Due to this gesture, it is rather fair to assume that this miniature was meant for the sender of the letter.The light, strongly entering from the left, undoubtedly enabled the artist to create a high plasticity when portraying his model. Apart from that, the colour harmony between the man`s clothes and the background is especially convincing. The diagonal, leading from the foreground to the far-away horizon, results from the portrayed person being placed in the centre of the picture and serves to involve the observer`s fantasy.