B. Linn
Lady with Two Gentlemen
The miniaturist Linn 1 , known by only a small number of works, had fashioned a peculiar group picture in the miniature at hand. A young lady in a light grey dress sits in the portrait's centre at a dressing table with a mirror, a flacon of perfume, an ivory powder tin and a watch. Two young gentlemen enframe the lady on both sides: the one to her right in a grey coat and radiant red waistcoat, holds with two fingers a pearl earring, for which the lady is reaching. The gentleman to her left, in a taupe coat raises a tiny demitasse, while the fingers of his right hand rest tenderly on the lady's shoulder.
Numerous details here contain messages for the observer, messages that cannot be readily deciphered today: what might be implied by the form of the displayed hands, holding the earring, what by the stiltedly spread fingers of the gentleman's right hand with the demitasse? What do the black ribbons on the lady's forearms signify, what the two floral wreaths in her left hand? The watch, which is conspicuously turned towards the viewer, showing the time at around 12.35 surely carries a certain meaning, as well as the demitasse. And Linn certainly did not paint the pink, unidentifiable appliqué at the lady's right shoulder without a special reason.
Pictures of couples in a boudoir mostly refer to love, and love certainly is the topic of this representation as well. It has to be left open, however, which kind of relationship had united the three sitters, who all appear serene and content.
B.P.
1 The miniature is signed and dated on the right side. The location within the signature refers probably not to Rome, but to Lomma, as there is a doubling mark above the "m" and the first letter is identical with the "1" of the date. Lomma is a borough near Malmö (Southern Sweden, directly opposite of Copenhagen). A further work of the artist, dated 1745 as well, shows a lady painted in grisaille technique in front of trees (former Cousin Collection, now in the art trade at Wilnitsky's, Vienna), a painting of a gentleman in a library dated 1753 is located in the Residenz Museum Munich (Nottbohm Collection). Linn painted a miniature of Johann Franz von und zu Eltz in Wuerzburg in 1755 (Sotheby's Geneva, 15.-17.11.1988, no.301).
