Gentleman in a Brown Coat with a Black Velvet Collar

The unknown man who sat for this miniature portrait by Amélie Daubigny in around 1830 opted for a plain, unadorned portrait that, by virtue of its size and format, could either be kept in a case or hung on a wall. The sitter is depicted wearing a dark coat and sitting at a slight angle on a chair. In the background, the artist painted a balustrade; above it, she created an undefined grey-blue surface that gradually turns ochre towards the bottom of the picture and calls to mind an evening sky. The overall gloomy mood of the portrait draws the viewer’s eye to the gentleman’s face, which exhibits credible individual features and is modelled with nuanced colours.

As the signature on the work reveals, Amélie painted this portrait after her marriage to Pierre Daubigny. His equal in talent, she was one of the best miniature painters in Paris in the 1830s. Her portraits usually have a matter-of-fact composition. She refrained from rendering accessories and presented her sitters with a serious expression or, at best, a reticent smile. However, some of her contemporaries had little understanding for this approach. Alexandre Martin commented tersely: “There’s little praise to be given here; pale colours, ordinary heads, devoid of sacred fire.” ¹

B. P.