After Jean François de Troy, A Lady Showing a Bracelet Miniature to Her Suitor, 1764 (?)

Read more about this painting at the associated catalogue entry.

A Lady Showing a Bracelet Miniature to Her Suitor was executed on a fine, plain-weave canvas with numerous slubs.¹ Little information is known about the original canvas as its tacking margins were removed during a previous lining, and the outer edges are now covered by fill and retouching. X-radiography confirms that the original canvas does not extend to the painting’s current outer edges (Fig. 1);² a similar treatment was performed on A Lady Attaching a Bow to a Gentleman’s Sword (F82-36/1). However, strong cusping visible along all four edges indicates that the composition is close to its original dimensions. The canvas was prepared with a thickly applied, light-gray ground.

No underdrawing was detected using infrared reflectography or stereomicroscopic examination. The artist executed the composition over a short period of time as evident by the extensive wet-over-wet brushwork. Compositional elements appear to have been laid in with initial washes, such as the red wash beneath the vanity and the brown wash in the curtains. The artist established the salon interior first and left reserves for the central figures.

The back wall was constructed with a modulating brownish-gray tone over which the gilded boiseries (paneling) were blocked in with ocher, yellow, and brown paint. Dark washes were subsequently applied to define shadows and spatial depth. Although abrasion limits a more detailed analysis, the gilded surfaces throughout the composition appear to follow a similar approach. The green curtain was painted over a brown wash that remains visible as a warm midtone within the folds. Above the green washes, loose zigzagging strokes of lighter green paint create highlights and a satin-like reflectance.

In the execution of the vanity table, the artist underpainted the area with a red wash. Thin, scumble-like applications of gray and white establish the vertical folds of the tablecloth followed by fine strokes to produce the floral motifs. Paint abrasion has made this red underlayer visibly prominent, disrupting the sense of transparency that the artist had generated in the thin white fabric (Fig. 2). The objects arranged on the vanity were executed rapidly with wet-over-wet handling, while dabs of white paint were applied to suggest reflected light across the metallic surfaces (Fig. 3).

The sequence of execution suggests that the man and maid were painted before the central female figure, whose dress overlaps adjacent forms. Costumes were generally established with a flat base tone, followed by wet-over-wet brushwork to define folds and decorative details. For instance, the aristocratic woman’s red dress consists of a pinkish-orange tone with sketchy horizonal strokes of dark-brown wash to suggest shadows and folds and brighter reddish-orange strokes for highlights. The decorative motif running down the center of the dress was executed with fine dabs of paint. Similarly, the man’s coat consists of a gray wash, lighter highlights, and brown shadows, with the gold embellishments formed through strokes and dabs of ocher, yellow, and white paint. The maid’s apron was rendered with vertical and zigzagging brushstrokes, while her sleeves and dress display a floral pattern with more delicate, finely painted details.

The figures’ faces were constructed with a light pinkish-beige tone, traces of which remain visible beneath abraded brown shadows in the man’s partially shaded face (Fig. 4). Pink tones model rosy complexions, while reddish-brown paint defines warm shadows along the contours of the faces. Pink accents and dark brown linear strokes outline the nose, eyes, lips, and eyebrows (Fig. 5), followed by touches of white, pink, and sometimes yellow for highlights. By comparison, the hands were executed more rapidly, often leaving the ground exposed beneath the streaky applications of pink, beige, and brown.

No pentimenti or compositional changes are apparent beyond minor adjustments along the contours of individual forms. Christophe Leribault identified that the Nelson-Atkins version differs slightly from the original, including a lack of finish in the parquet floor and the expanded composition along the painting’s edges.³ These differences remain evident despite the painting’s dimensions having been slightly enlarged during a previous lining, with approximately 3/5 centimeters of fill and retouching added along the outer edges (Fig. 6).⁴ Leribault further notes a drier paint handling, although this observation may result from the extensive abrasion caused by past cleaning campaigns.⁵

The likely execution date, located on the left side of the crumpled letter on the parquet floor, appears to be “1764” (Fig. 7), which is later than the year of De Troy’s death. The date was painted wet-over-wet into the white paint and appears to be contemporary to the composition. Additional paint strokes on the letter may represent a decorative text or a signature, though the letter is heavily abraded.⁶ The dated inscription supports the conclusion that the work is a posthumous copy after De Troy, together with the absence of an underdrawing, minimal pentimenti, and smaller dimensions.⁷

The painting has a similar condition and treatment history as A Lady Attaching a Bow to a Gentleman’s Sword. Prior to its acquisition by the Nelson-Atkins in 1982, the painting was glue-lined and attached to a six-membered stretcher. The painting has a network of cracks distributed across its surface, along with horizontal stretcher cracks from a previous auxiliary support. In 1983, the painting was cleaned, retouched, and coated with a blend of synthetic varnishes.⁸ Conservator Forrest Bailey noted that the delicate, translucent passages had been abraded from previous cleaning campaigns, along with the letter and all three heads (Fig. 8).⁹ The extent of the retouching campaign can be clearly distinguished when the painting is examined with ultraviolet (UV) radiation (Fig. 9). There remain residues of an old natural-resin varnish trapped in the shallow impasto, providing a brownish tint to the white passages, such as in the aristocratic woman’s dress.

Notes

1. Forrest Bailey, examination report, December 17, 1982, NAMA conservation file, 82-36/2.

2. The radiograph is a composite of two film-based radiographs, with black areas representing regions that were not captured. See film-based radiographs, no. 173, 1982, NAMA conservation file, 82-36/2.

3. Christophe Leribault, Jean-François de Troy (1679–1752) (Paris: Arthena, 2002), 334.

4. Bailey, examination report, December 17, 1982, NAMA conservation file, 82-36/2.

5. Leribault, Jean-François de Troy (1679–1752), 334.

6. In the original pair, A Lady at Her Toilette bears the signature “De Troy” on the letter in the lower right; see the accompanying curatorial entry by Nicole R. Myers. The artist of the Nelson-Atkins paintings may similarly have inscribed their own name in this location.

7. See the accompanying curatorial entry by Myers.

8. Forrest Bailey, treatment report, January 27, 1983, NAMA conservation file, 82-36/2.

9. Bailey, examination report, December 17, 1982, NAMA conservation file, 82-36/2.