Description

Artist : Charles-Guillaume-Alexandre Bourgeois (1759 Amiens – 1832 Paris)

Creation Year: 1790

Measurements: UNFRAMED: 6,4×6,4 cm – FRAMED: 15×15 cm

Object Type: Framed miniature

Style: Scenery (early work)

Technique: watercolor on ivory

Inscription: signed and dated: Bourgeois 1790

Condition : mint

C. Bourgeois was a physician, chemist, painter and engraver. He studied painting under Kimly, and engraving from Wille. He learned the composition of colors and succeeded in perfecting them. The artist left a legacy of works on perspective, among which is the “Mémoire sur les lois qui suivent dans leurs combinaisons les couleurs produites par la refraction de la lumiere”.

Bourgeois painted a great number of miniatures, of which the majority was bust profiles on a dark blue or black background, which imitated wax relief – very much in fashion of that time.

Schidlof writes that “it would be a mistake, however, to think that Bourgeois only painted in this style. There are known a number of very good miniatures in which the personages are represented full and part of a scenery”. He also painted portraits in oils.

Schidlof adds: “Bourgeois was a first class miniaturist, who also probably painted on porcelain”. He signed usually: Bourgeois or C. Bourgeois, often following by the date.

The Louvre houses a series of miniatures by him. Many of Bourgeois’ other works can be seen in Museums of Brussels, Caen, Nancy, etc.