JAQUES THOURON

Jaques Thouron was born in Geneva in 1740, and at the age of 20 moved to Paris. Before his relocation, he had been a student under Pierre Francois Marcinhes. Examples of his miniatures can be found across Europe, including a portrait of Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun in the Wallace collection[1]. The present portrait is not an original composition, but instead a copy after Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805). The French painter was a contemporary of Thouron, and was known for his depictions of women expressing extreme emotions, and muses. The original after which this miniature is based is lost, however another example of a copy after it by Augustus Jules Bouvier (1827-1881), sold through Galerie Jaegy Theoleyre, is known.

The detail and skill in depicting emotion that makes paintings by Greuze so captivating can certainly be seen in this copy. The tears that seem to appear in the girl’s eyes, as well as the softness of her pose, are reminiscent of examples of portraits by Greuze such as Ariadne and Psyche, both in the Wallace Collection[2]. The fact that Thouron has managed to capture these on such a small scale, and through the medium of enamel, is particularly impressive. In order to create the miniature, he would have had to heat different layers of enamel, heating each one up to a specific temperature to get different colours. It is through this technique that an impression of great depth has been developed.

Thouron is known to have painted another miniature after Greuze’s The Broken Jar[3]. As this was exhibited in the Salon de la Correspondance in 1781, it is possible to suggest that the current example was painted around the same time. Since its creation, it has passed through the collection of Felix Panhard, where it would have likely received the case that it is in today, embossed with the artist’s name.

[1] Wallace Collection, London, Inventory Number M311.
[2] The Wallace collection, London, inventory numbers P421 (Ariadne), and P388 (Psyche).
[3] L.R. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe, Graz, 1964, vol.II, p.818.