FLORENTINO DE CRAENE (Tournai, 1793 - Madrid, 1854)Retrato de dama

Miniature. 4, 8 x 3.9 cm. Signed on the back: "Florentino Decraene painted it". Born in Tournai, he studied drawing with the famous miniaturist Pierre-Joseph Sauvage (1714-1818); at the age of seventeen, De Craene participated in the annual exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts of Tournai, winning a gold medal in 1810. Two years later he traveled to Paris to further his studies and there he attended the studio of Baron Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835), a disciple of David, where he met the miniaturist José de Udías González. In 1825 he came to Madrid to work as a lithographer as camarón or Villaamil in the team directed by José de Madrazo to lithograph the royal collections. Years later, during the regency of Maria Cristina and later years, his dedication was centered in the practice of the miniaturist portrait, where they emphasize for example that of the boy of six years Jacobo Luis Fitz-Stuart, VIII Duke of Berwick (col. Duchess of Alba), that of the girl Maria d'Oubril, daughter of the Russian ambassador in Madrid for those years Peter Jacob d'Ouvril (1774-1847) or that of the Countess of Corres (col. Duques del Infantado).