Footnotes

• This miniature forms part of a series of commensurate portraits by the artist, depicting the same sitter in subtly variant attitudes and which is now largely scattered amongst private collections. The present lot is one of six known versions, all of which Autissier appears to have exhibited at the Salons in Brussels (1811, 1815, 1824) and Gand (1812, 1817).
  
  One, which is undated, is that illustrated in Aline Bara's essay 'Les miniatures d'Autissier du legs E. de Coussemaeker' (Bulletin des Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, 1950, p.7, fig.7). The most disparate (1814) version, entitled 'Jeune bourgeoise bruxelloise rentrant du marché', in which the sitter stands before a rather rustic brick wall, is now in the Tansey Collection of Miniatures (B. Hofstetter and P. Plantade, Autissier et le portrait miniature romantique en Belgique, Brussels, 1998, no.26, ill.p.50). A third, signed and dated 1816, is the only version to portray the sitter looking away from the viewer and bears the title 'Une jeune personne en faille, costume usité à Bruxelles, portant à son bras un panier de fruits' (Hofstetter and Plantade, p.19, ill.fig.1). The present lot is most comparable to the three-quarter length version entitled 'Jeune bourgeoise bruxelloise avec sa faille rentrant du marché' (Hofstetter and Plantade, no.18, ill.p.42). An autographed 1811 version was sold at Sotheby's on 4 July 2006 (lot 522) and is believed to have once formed part of Lady Buller's Collection.
  
  In each of the known versions, the sitter wears the localised costume of a Brussels bourgeoise, which places her firmly within the Belgian romantic art historical canon. Moreover, the recurring basket of fruit demonstrates an inheritance from the 'vanitas' paintings of the Dutch Baroque, which Autissier had studied during his time in the Netherlands.

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Category: Fine Art / Portrait Miniatures

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