Circle of Wincenty de Lesseur, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1793

Chicago:

Blythe Sobol, “Circle of Wincenty de Lesseur, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1793,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 1, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.2228.

MLA:

Sobol, Blythe. “Circle of Wincenty de Lesseur, Portrait of a Man, ca. 1793,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 1, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.2228.

When this expressive portrait miniature entered the Starr collection, it was misleadingly identified as a portrait of the sculptor Antonio Canova (1757–1822) by Heinrich Friedrich Füger (German, 1751–1818), as indicated by the inscription on the back of the case. Conservation treatment in 2019 revealed that the miniature is quite flatly painted, shedding doubts on the attribution to Füger.¹ It was probably painted by an artist in the circle of the Franco-Polish miniaturist and pastellist Wincenty de Lesseur,² who was strongly influenced by Füger during his time in Vienna.³

The sitter’s features do not resemble those of Canova, and we now know that the inscription identifying him was added later. In fact, elements of the sitter’s attire closely resemble the clothing worn by Stanisłaus II August, deposed King of Poland, in a portrait miniature by Lesseur,⁴ which was in turn a copy of an oil portrait by Lesseur’s teacher, Marcello Bacciarelli (Italian, active in Poland, 1731–1818) (Fig. 1).⁵ Bacciarelli married his student, the German miniaturist Friederike Richter (German, 1733–1811),⁶ and it is tempting to think that Richter, who also taught Lesseur, may have painted this miniature, but there are not enough known examples of her work to offer a thorough comparison. Perhaps a different pupil, maybe of Lesseur’s, copied the clothing from Lesseur’s miniature, revising the sitter’s features and pose as a training exercise. The miniature’s background is filled in with angled strokes, in contrast to the “water drop” technique that is characteristic of Lesseur’s backgrounds.⁷

The sitter’s clothing is startlingly informal, especially given that it was probably modeled after a royal portrait. The velvet of the fur-trimmed blue dressing gown is rendered with lush, heavy strokes at the shoulder to replicate the material’s sheen and pile.⁸ The angled collar points, more rigidly starched than in the original painting, contrast with the soft falling ruffles of floral lace at the neckline, drawing the eye to the sitter’s open white shirt. Further emphasizing the intimacy of this image, we can see the flesh tones peeking through the sheer lace edging, delineated with swift white curlicues across the chest. The sitter’s head turns to the side with wide, heavily lidded eyes, as if he has just been interrupted in a private moment—albeit a highly constructed one.

Notes

1. Notes by conservators Carol Aiken and Stephanie Spence, 2019, in NAMA curatorial files.

2. We are grateful to Bernd Pappe, who made this suggested attribution of “Circle of Wincenty de Lesseur-Lesseruowicz” when he examined the miniature during a July 23–25, 2023 visit. Notes in NAMA curatorial files.

3. Neil Jeffares, “Lesseur-Lesserowicz, Wincenty Frederyk de,” Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800, last updated July 24, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20240216211601/http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/LESSEUR.pdf.

4. The painting’s meanings have been endlessly debated by Polish art historians, but the hourglass and crown, and the very intimacy of the portrait, are probably an allegorical commentary on the king’s recent forced abdication: the cruel passing of time and politics have reduced a monarch to a mere man, one humble enough to worry for his subjects. Stanisłaus regarded this painting, of which he ordered at least nineteen copies as well as the engraving, which he disseminated across the courts of Europe, as a kind of visual apologia for his unwilling abdication. Konrad Niciński, “Marcello Bacciarelli, ‘Portret króla Stanisława Augusta z klepsydrą,’” Culture.pl (blog), Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Poland, last updated September 15, 2021, https://culture.pl/pl/dzielo/marcello-bacciarelli-portret-krola-stanislawa-augusta-z-klepsydra.

5. Bacciarelli played several significant roles at the court of Stanisłaus as the king’s court painter and Director-General of Royal Buildings in charge of the royal collections. Andrzej Ryszkiewicz, “Bacciarelli, Marcello [Marceli],” Grove Art Online, 2003, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T005538.

6. Richter was appointed court painter to Stanisłaus in 1759. Neil Jeffares, “Bacciarelli, Mme Marcello, née Johanna Juliana Friederike Richter,” Dictionary of Pastellists Before 1800, updated June 23, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20240713161923/http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/BacciarelliJ.pdf.

7. This technique was adapted from Füger. On Füger, his style, and his technique, see Robert Keil, Heinrich Friedrich Füger (1751–1818): Nur Wenigen ist es Vergönnt das Licht der Wahrheit zu Sehen (Vienna: Amartis, 2009).

8. We have as yet been unable to identify the curiously hourglass-shaped order pinned to the sitter’s robes, and we hope that a keen-eyed reader may recognize it. It does not resemble the traditional cross-shaped royal orders worn and implemented by Stanisłaus.

John Lumsden Propert (1834–1902), London, by 1887–at least 1897 [1];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] John Lumsden Propert was an English physician, art critic, and collector with a particular interest in portrait miniatures. The miniature was illustrated by Propert in two of his publications on portrait miniatures, beginning in 1887; the only difference is a jump ring that has been removed. See J. Lumsden Propert, A History of Miniature Art (London: Macmillan, 1887), 131. For latest known date of ownership, see Catalogue of Miniatures, Enamels, Pastels, and Waxes at 112, Gloucester Place, Portman Square (London: William Clowes, 1897), 64.

Wicenty de Lesseur, King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski with an Hourglass, 1793, watercolor and gouache on ivory, 3 13/16 x 3 1/4 in. (9.4 x 8.2 cm), Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warsaw.

Wicenty de Lesseur, King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski with an Hourglass, 1793, watercolor and gouache on ivory, 4 5/16 x 3 5/8 in. (10.9 x 9.2 cm), Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warsaw.

Marcello Bacciarelli, King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski with an Hourglass, 1793, oil on canvas, 33 5/8 x 43 13/16 in. (85.5 x 111.5 cm), Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warsaw.

Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1889, no. 16, 109.

Exhibition of the Royal House of Guelph, The New Gallery, London, 1891, no. 1080, 177, as Antonio Canova.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 253, as Antonio Canova.

J. Lumsden Propert, A History of Miniature Art (London: Macmillan, 1887), 131, (repro.), as Canova.

Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures (London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1889), 109, as Antonio Canova.

Exhibition of the Royal House of Guelph (London: The New Gallery, 1891), 109, as Antonio Canova.

Catalogue of Miniatures, Enamels, Pastels, and Waxes at 112, Gloucester Place, Portman Square (London: William Clowes, 1897), 64, (repro.), as Antonio Canova.

Algernon Graves, Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813–1912 (New York: Burt Franklin, 1913), 1:364, as Antonio Canova.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 137, 264, (repro.), as by Friedrich Heinrich Füger, Antonio Canova.

Martha Jane and John W. Starr, “Collecting Portrait Miniatures,” Antiques 80, no. 5 (November 1961): 439.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 253, p. 82, (repro.), as Antonio Canova.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 149, (repro.), as by Friedrich Heinrich Füger, Antonio Canova.