Jean-Baptiste Lemort
Lady in Blue- White Dress
The lady in a blue bodice with sleeves and fichu of white tulle betrays nothing of the human tragedies that were happening at the time of this miniature' s origin. Her smile is meant for the beloved addressee of the miniature, and the individual happiness of an emotional bond with another human being seems to sustain all political turbulences. This miniature shows typical elements of Lemort' s painting technique: orange-brown shadows in the sitter' s face and hair, exact pleats in parts of the fabrics and sharp heightenings in gouache colour 1 . The swift brushwork in depicting the dress with the perkily applied lights recalls Hall' s painting style, which - in spite of new trends - many French miniaturists used as a role model up to the end of the 18th century.
B.P.
1 Lemort's key work as illustrated in Schidlof, signed and dated 1787, is in the Museum Briner and Kern, Donation Kern, Winterthur. Another portrait of a gentleman in this collection can be ascribed to him (without inv. no.). A portrait of a lady dating circa 1785 from the collection of the House of Oranien-Nassau was presumably painted by Lemort, as well (cf. Schaffers-Bodenhausen and Tiethoff-Spliethoff 1993, p. 469, no. 678, incorrectly recorded as "unknown artist"). Furthermore, two portraits of ladies in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (inv. no. 39773 and no. 39568), a portrait of a gentleman in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (inv. no. 847), and another one in the Musèe Lorrain, Nancy (cf. Pupil 1993, cat.-no. 1, were mistakenly attributed to Advinent).
