Gabriel Decker
Lady in Grey Dress with Pink Bow
Gabriel Decker was born in Budapest and brought up in Vienna. He probably learned miniature painting with his father, the Colmarian painter Johann Stephan Decker, and benefitted from his connections with Metternich and the Habsburg dynasty. 1 This miniature presents a lady in a plain grey dress with a red bow on the neckline and upswept hair whose features are meticulously modelled. Apart from an arm ring she is wearing no jewelry. Around mid-19th-century extravagant dresses and rich accessories - typical for the portraits by Daffinger and his contemporaries - had gone out of fashion.
1 Portraits by Gabriel Decker of Arch-Duchess Maria Anna, daughter of Emperor Franz II (I), and of Prince Charles of Bavaria are known. See Fuchs 1981/1982, vol. 1, fig. 122 and 120.
