Jean Urbain Guérin
Portrait of a gentleman with a medal
Gouache on ivory. Half-length portrait to the left. With the cross of the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle and the Commander's Cross of Charles III of Spain. Signed "J. Guérin f" on the right edge, dated below. Ivory plate somewhat convexly warped, vertical crack on the left. 9.5 x 7.5 cm. Original ormolu frame.
Jean Urbain Guérin, Paris, 1818.
The sitter is presumably the Prussian diplomat Heinrich August Alexander Wilhelm von Werther (1772 - 1859), who was appointed to the Spanish court in 1814 and held office there until 1821.
Expert opinion
Marketing license for ivory is available (DE-S-0507-23).
Provenance
Lempertz Cologne auction 555 on November 24, 1976, lot 51.
Sotheby's Geneva auction on May 21, 1992, lot 43.
Rhenish private collection.
Literature
On the artist see Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, Graz 1964, Vol. I, p. 318 f.
Cf. Lemoine-Bouchard, Les peintres en miniature actifs en France 1650 - 1850, Verona 2008, p. 272 f.
This object was made using materials for which a CITES permit is required for export to countries outside the EU. We would like to point out that a permit is not usually issued.
