AIMEE-ZOE LIZINKA DE MIRBEL, BORN RUE

(1796-1849)

Portrait of a man with Legion of Honor

Signed on the right: Lizinka de Mirbel.

Watercolor and gouache, oval 4.4 x 3.2 cm.

More recent gilt metal frame, 5.7 x 3.4 cm.

Beautiful portrait of a young man decorated with the Legion of Honor signed on the right.

The technical quality makes it an interesting example of the production of De Mirbel, who was one of the best miniature painters of her generation.

Her works are kept in the most important museums and private collections.

Mme Aimée Zoe Lizinka de Mirbel, nee Rue, was daughter of a naval commissar. Showing increasing talent for painting already at an early age, she entered the studio of Augustin. In 1819 her highly-placed friends arranged for her to paint the portrait of King Louis XVIII. Mirbel’s debut was a complete success. Louis XVIII appointed her The Official Painter to the King. She exhibited this portrait at the Salon, along with portraits of eleven other important court nobles.
In 1824, with King’s approval, she married the botanist Charles Francois Brisseau de Mirbel. From that point on she always appeared under her married name at the Salon. In 1827 she painted the portrait of Charles X, and in 1839 – that of Duke of Orleans.
Right up to the end of her career (she was a victim of the cholera epidemic of 1849) her fame did nothing but increase, and she may be considered as one of the most sought after and feted miniaturists of her period.
Amongst the pupils of Augustin, she was undoubtedly the artist who had the most personality.

Over the years, she portrayed the great names of France starting with the sovereigns who succeeded each other over her lifetime and she enjoyed friendships and correspondence with the likes of Alexandre Dumas, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Victor Schoelcher and the princess of Canino, widow of Luciano Bonaparte.

A slight damage to the frame.

Price: 6300 €

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Labat, Bouchot, Thieme and Becker, Lamberger, Bénézit, Schidlof, Bouchard, Blattel, Lespinasse, Foster.

MUSEUMS:

Louvre, Paris; Nationalmuseum Stockholm, coll. Tansey, Celle; Wallace coll; Condé, Chantilly; Cincinnati Art Museum; Palazzo Madama, Torino; Calvet museum; miniature museum, Montélimar; MBA Rouen; Napoleon museum.