14 - Lizinka-Aimée-Zoé RUE DE MIRBEL (1796–1849)

Lizinka-Aimée-Zoé RUE DE MIRBEL (1796–1849) Portrait of Louis XVIII (1755–1824), King of France Three-quarter bust facing right (1818). Oval miniature painted on ivory, signed “Mlle Lizinka Rue / 1818” halfway down on the left. The King is dressed in a blue colonel-general’s uniform with gold epaulets; he wears several orders and decorations, notably the blue moiré ribbon and the plaque of the Order of the Holy Spirit, the plaque of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Golden Fleece, as well as the Orders of the Legion of Honor and of Saint Louis. Set in its beautiful original rectangular gilt-bronze frame, richly decorated and chased with foliage and flowers, featuring an oval view. H. 10 x W. 8 cm. Frame: H. 22 x W. 18.5 cm. Provenance - The artist’s collection. - His sale “Catalog of a Sale of Paintings, Miniatures, Watercolors, Framed and Unframed Prints, and Print Collections, Following the death of Mme de Mirbel, Miniature Painter, to be held following her death on Saturday, December 22, 1849, at noon, at her residence, 74 Rue St-Dominique-St-Germain, ..., Paris 1849” following her death in 1849, lot 4, under the heading “Miniatures”: “Louis XVIII. Mlle Lizinka Rue, 1818.” - Sotheby’s auction, London, March 29, 1976, lot 117. - Private collection. Related Work Lizinka-Aimée-Zoé Rue de Mirbel, Portrait of King Louis XVIII, watercolor on ivory, 15 x 12 cm, 1819, London, Wallace Collection (inv. M282, see illustration). Bibliography - *Moniteur Universel*, August 28, 1818. - A. Jal, *Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d’histoire*, Paris, 1867, p. 866. - H. Bouchot, “The Miniature Portrait in France (Fourth Article),” *Gazette des Beaux-Arts*, 1895, 3rd series, XIII, pp. 237–246; regarding Madame de Mirbel, pp. 237–243; regarding this portrait, pp. 237 ff. - R. Jean, “Madame de Mirbel,” *Gazette des Beaux-Arts*, 1906, 3rd series, XXXV, pp. 131–146; this portrait, pp. 134 ff. - L. R. Schidlof, *Die Bildnisminiatur in Frankreich im XVII., XVIII. und XIX. Jahrhundert*, Vienna and Leipzig, 1911; this miniature is mentioned on p. 83. - L. de Mauri, *L’Amatore di Miniature su Avorio*, Milan, 1918; this miniature is mentioned on p. 357. - E. Bénézit, *Dictionnaire critique et documentaire* [...], Paris, 1976, p. 434. - G. Reynolds, *Wallace Collection. Catalogue of Miniatures*, London, 1980, p. 252. - N. Lemoine-Bouchard, *Les Peintres en miniature actifs en France 1650–1850*, Paris, 2008; this miniature is mentioned on p. 385. - S. Duffy and C. M. Vogtherr, *Miniatures in the Wallace Collection*, London, 2010; this miniature is mentioned on p. 147. Background It was this portrait that earned Lizinka Rue her appointment as “Miniaturist to the King’s Chamber.” According to A. Jal, who knew her personally, she obtained the king’s permission to paint him while he was having lunch. Jal reports that she set up her easel near a window—not too close so as not to disturb the sovereign, but close enough to observe her royal model clearly. Etiquette, however, required that she remain standing during the sessions. According to Jal, she later told him: “The King … had a penetrating yet kind gaze; he seemed afraid of putting me on the spot, and consequently did not bother me too much.” ” Mirbel retained her position as court painter under Charles X, and then under his successor, Louis-Philippe. She was the most famous female miniature painter of her time, exhibiting at the Paris Salon and teaching miniature painting to students in her studio. Another portrait of Louis XVIII, dated 1819, is housed in the Wallace Collection. The document continues with this quote: “Madame Aimée-Zoë Lizinka de Mirbel (1796–1849), miniaturist to Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis-Philippe, was the artist chosen by Honoré de Balzac to represent miniature painting in *La Comédie humaine*, his series of novels devoted to life in France in the 1830s and 1840s.” With its CITES certificate No. FR2307517298-K authorizing intra-EU trade, dated December 14, 2023.