The two greatest, however, of the painters of the French school were Isabey and Augustin, and Isabey, who was born in 1767, forms a curious link between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries. He painted Marie Antoinette, Buonaparte, the King of Rome, and the Empress Marie Louise; he also worked for Louis XVIII., received high distinctions from Charles X. and from Louis Philippe, and was appointed Commander of the Legion of Honour by Napoleon III.: moreover, he had a long conversation with the Empress Eugénie (who is still living) in 1854, the year in which he died at the advanced age of eighty-eight. He exhibited between 1793 and 1841, painting portraits of all the eminent persons in France during his long career. Of his earlier work we exhibit in colour two charming companion miniatures from the collection of Mr. Ward Usher, representing the Empress Josephine, and the Empress Marie Louise ([Plate XL.]), while of his later, somewhat more florid work, almost invariably distinguished by the presence of a light gauzy scarf which he wound about his sitter, and which he painted to perfection, we give two portraits, one a portrait of Catherine, Countess Beauchamp, from the collection of Lady Maria Ponsonby ([Plate XLI.]), and the other depicting Fürstin Katharina Bagration Shawronska ([Plate XLII.]), from the collection of Fürst Franz Auersperg.
One of the loveliest miniatures Isabey ever painted is that representing Queen Hortense and her son Napoleon III., in the collection of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. It contains autograph information in the Emperor's handwriting attesting to its history, and is a lovely example of Isabey's easy, graceful, pleasing work. It is illustrated on [Plate XLIII.]
An interesting feature of some of Isabey's miniatures is the fact that he worked in conjunction with two Dutch artists, the brothers Van Spaendonck. They were expert painters of flowers and fruit, often employed at the Sévres porcelain factories, one of them being as well a professor of natural history and lecturer on flowers in Paris, and the author of one or two books on flowers and flower-painting. There are several examples of the work of Isabey in which one or other of these brothers has supplied the floral decoration, or a group of fruit in the background.
We now come to Jean Baptiste Jacques Augustin, one of the noblest of the miniature painters of France. He was born in 1759, upon the same day, although separated from him by an interval of ten years, as that on which the great Napoleon, whose portrait Augustin was afterwards to paint, came into the world. He came over to Paris as quite a boy, and lived in a house in that city to which he returned many years afterwards, bringing with him a bride, and where, as a married man, he resided for a considerable time. For a while he found life a hard struggle, but his rare merit soon brought him many clients, and from about 1790 onward until the close of his life, he seems to have had a succession of sitters, including all the notabilities of the day. He left behind him a wonderful collection of sketches, contained in various books, and a large number of unfinished miniatures. Some few years ago the members of the family, in whose possession this great collection had remained, desirous of portioning off two of their daughters, offered the collection for sale. The Directors of the Louvre very much desired to purchase it, as it included many works of great importance, but the whole collection passed into the hands of Mr. Pierpont Morgan, and fills one entire cabinet, giving a view of this artist's work altogether unrivalled. The illustrations which we give are of Augustin's later work rather than those of the early years, although with them is included a brilliant unfinished sketch, representing The Father of Madame Seguin ([Plate XLIV., No. 2]). The one from Mr. Ward Usher's collection represented in colour is a portrait of Madame Récamier ([Plate XLV.]), that from Mr. Morgan's collection in monotone, the famous Madame de Boufflers ([Plate XLIV., No. 1]), the friend of David Hume, who introduced the historian to J. J. Rousseau, and is so frequently alluded to in Horace Walpole's letters. When she fled from France, Madame de Boufflers resided for some time in or near London, and Walpole spoke of her as the most agreeable and sensible woman he ever saw, but he was greatly amused at her want of appreciation of his house. She had never seen a printing press until she came to Strawberry Hill, and Walpole arranged that on the occasion of her visit his private press should print a few lines of French poetry in her praise. In one of his gossipy letters we are told that Madame de Boufflers informed Lord Onslow of the birth of Lord Salisbury two hours after his mother had come from the Opera House, and that from Lord Onslow Walpole himself heard the news.
Of E. W. Thompson, an Englishman, who spent very much of his time in France, and is regarded by the French critics almost as one of themselves, we know very little, but the Princess de Lieven, whose portrait he painted ([Plate XLIII.]), was one of the great ladies of Europe in the nineteenth century. She was a personal friend of Count Metternich and afterwards of Guizot, and Madame de Lieven kept up a steady correspondence with both these statesmen, and exercised, without doubt, a very considerable influence upon European politics.
Two artists of Italian parentage deserve mention, especially as we are able to illustrate, by the permission of their owner, Mr. Ward Usher, delightfully signed examples of their work. By Costa we show an interesting portrait of Marie Antoinette ([Plate XLVI.]) which came from the Bentinck-Hawkins collection; and by Anguissola, the favourite miniature painter to the court of the great Napoleon, we illustrate, in reduced size, a fine portrait of the Emperor's sister, Princess Pauline Borghese ([Plate XLVII.]).
Special attention has been given in our illustrations to the work of the great Viennese miniature painter Füger, because very little is known of his work in England, and there are so few examples of it to be found in English collections. The Viennese collectors seem determined that all the finest works by Füger shall remain in their own city, and they are prepared to give high prices in order that they may carry out this desire. One of the chief collectors in Vienna is Dr. Figdor, and he has been exceedingly kind in allowing many miniatures from his collection to be illustrated for the purpose of this essay, amongst them, five by Füger, perhaps a rather large proportion; but it has been felt that, as the work of the painter is so little known in England, it was well in our illustrations to err on the right side, and give several examples of his delightful workmanship. For a long time the details of his life were buried in obscurity, and all sorts of mistakes were made respecting his work, which was confused with that of other painters, and in some instances not recognised at all. It was not until 1905, when Herr Doktor Ferdinand Laban published a very important article upon him, that Füger's true position was apparent, and Dr. Laban was able from family records to set right the errors of those writers, amongst whom we must include ourselves, who had gone astray from lack of the very material Dr. Laban was able to discover. Since then, Herr Eduard Leisching has added considerably to our information in a splendid book he published on Austrian miniature painters, and he has discovered many more examples of Füger's work, who can now be justly recognised as the greatest of the Continental eighteenth-century miniaturists. He has been called the Viennese Cosway, but the work of Füger has very little affinity with that of our English painter. It is far stronger and more severe, and his more graceful portraits are richer in their colour scheme, and far more elaborate in their decorative effect than anything ever painted by Cosway. There are two wonderful miniatures by Füger in Mr. Pierpont Morgan's collection, one representing three sisters, the Countesses Thun-Hohenstein, and the other Madame Rousbaeck, a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Marie Theresa, but Dr. Figdor's illustrations set forth in excellent manner both the strength and the charm of this wonderful painter. Nothing can be more forcible than the sketch of Prince Hohenlohe ([Plate XLVIII.]), and we realise the power and dignity of the sitter when we regard this marvellous delineation of character. For dainty grace it is difficult to excel the portrait of the anonymous lady ([Plate XLIX.]), for strength and gracious dignity that of the Empress Maria ([Plate L.]), while the portrait of Marie Theresia, Countess von Dietrichstein ([Plate LI.]) is that of a noble dignified lady of high position, splendid courage, and great charm, and that of Princess Anna Liechtenstein ([Plate LII.]) shows us a thoughtful, learned, and musical lady, a portrait very decorative in colour scheme, and charmingly set upon its oval of ivory.
Another painter whose work was exceedingly popular in Vienna, was Giovanni Battista de Lampi, an Italian born near Trent in 1751, a man very little known outside the narrow limits of the Viennese collectors. He was a wanderer for a few years, painting in Verona, and moving on until he reached St. Petersburg, but when in 1783 he came to Vienna, he was received with open arms, was welcomed by the court and the nobility to such an extent that practically for the rest of his life he resided either in Vienna, or in various towns of Poland from which he could easily reach the capital itself. It was in Vienna that he died at the age of eighty, universally respected and greatly beloved. His wife's portrait is in the gallery at Innsbrück, one of three replicas. The original Lampi retained for himself. His two sons each had replicas, and the remaining one went to his granddaughter, the Baroness Hell, who left it to the museum. One of the replicas which came into the possession of his sons is now a great treasure in Mr. Pierpont Morgan's collection. The portrait from that of Dr. Figdor, which we illustrate in colour, represents Lampi himself ([Plate LIII.]), and is not only a fine example of the artist's work, serious, and almost solemn in its aspect, but also peculiarly interesting as showing us what the painter himself was like.
Another Viennese miniature painter whose work we illustrate is Moritz Michael Daffinger, who has been called the Austrian Isabey, but these comparisons, like that applied to Füger, are of little significance. What is of special interest with regard to Daffinger is the fact that he adopted the manner of Sir Thomas Lawrence as his own. Lawrence visited Vienna in 1814, and was received with great honour. While there he painted some portraits. Daffinger admired his work immensely, and undoubtedly some of his best miniatures are reminiscent of Lawrence. Especially is this the case with a beautiful girl's portrait from the collection of another Viennese collector, Gräfin Emma Wilczek-Emo-Capodilista; and for permission to illustrate this delightful miniature ([Plate LIV.]) we are particularly grateful, as it is a charming specimen of the best work of the nineteenth century, a pleasing portrait, and very agreeable in its colour scheme.