Etienne-Charles LE GUAY(or LEGUAY).1762-1846 Portrait of Marie-Victoire Jaquotot Bust version of Etienne-Charles Le Guay's miniature Portrait of Marie-Victoire Jaquotot, seated on a sofa Between 1794 and 1801 Miniature on ivory, mounted on cardboard 13 x 10 cm Etienne-Charles Le Guay (1762- 1846), was a miniaturist and painter on porcelain, born in Sèvres in 1762 and died in Paris in 1846. He was taught at the Académie Royale by Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809), founder of the modern classical school, who taught many of his pupils, including Regnault and David. After managing production at the Dihl et Guérhard porcelain factory in Paris during the French Revolution, Le Guay (or Leguay) was considered the best figure painter at the Sèvres factory in the early 19th century. In 1794, Etienne-Charles Le Guay married his pupil, Marie-Victoire Jaquotot ( 1772-1855), a porcelain painter. The couple separated a few years later in 1801. Le Guay exhibited at the Salon between 1795 and 1819, his work proving in tune with the precious taste of the Consulate and Empire. A painter at the Manufacture de Sèvres from 1778 to 1840, he is particularly renowned for having adorned a monumental "Etruscan" vase at the Sèvres factory with a 2.05 m frieze depicting the wedding procession of Napoleon 1st and Marie-Louise through the Grand Galerie of the Louvre. The vase has now been destroyed, but the model for the frieze, a watercolor by B. Zix, is preserved in the Louvre's cabinet des dessins. Marie-Victoire Jaquotot (1772-1855), a porcelain painter, was a pupil and second wife in 1794 of Etienne-Charles Le Guay, whom she divorced in 1801. She worked as a painter at the Manufacture de Sèvres between 1801 and 1842. She exhibited her porcelain paintings at the Salon between 1808 and 1836, and at the first of these exhibitions was awarded the gold medal, the first given to porcelain painting. In 1816, Marie-Victoire Jaquotot was awarded the title of "premier peintre sur porcelaine du cabinet du roi" (first porcelain painter in the King's cabinet), a title that enabled her to open a private studio where, for almost twenty years, she taught porcelain painting to some thirty students, most of them women, including Marie-Adélaïde Ducluzeau (1787-1849), who was also a painter at Sèvres. Marie-Victoire Jaquotot, while employed at the Sèvres factory, painted a large number of pieces that may rank among the finest paintings on porcelain. According to Le Guide de l'amateur de faïences et porcelaines : poteries, terres cuites, peintures sur lave, émaux, pierres précieuses artificielles, vitraux et verreries published in 1867: "It was she who painted the dessert service given to Emperor Alexander, and the series of portraits of kings, which belonged to the court. She painted La Belle Jardinière, after Raphaël; Anne de Clèves, after Van Dyk; Wellington; Napoleon 1er; Lady Darnley; the Countess Woronzof; the Duchesse d'Orléans; the Duchesse de Berry; the Countess Lorges, etc.". Our ivory miniature is a bust version of Portrait de Marie-Victoire Jaquotot, assise sur un divan, an ivory miniature painted by Etienne-Charles Le Guay between 1794 and 1801, now in the Musée du Louvre. The painter depicts his wife, the artist Marie-Victoire Jaquotot, consulting prints, among which is the figure of Mansuétude, one of the virtues painted by Raphaël in Constantine's bedroom. She is also holding an engraving of La Vierge à la chaise, all of which testify to the artist's admiration for Raphael. Indeed, Marie-Victoire Jaquotot was particularly renowned for her copies after Raphael. Her talent for mastering ceramic colors, combining brilliant hues and velvety complexions, made her a key figure in Alexandre Brongniart's policy of painting copies on large porcelain plates (the quest for unalterable paint), which were framed like paintings. Le Guay plays on the whiteness of ivory to give his wife's portrait "a luminous, slightly ethereal envelope". Camille Mauclair described this work as delightful: "the young miniaturist appears very pretty".