22 - Jean-Baptiste ISABEY (Nancy, 1767 – Paris, 1855)

Jean-Baptiste ISABEY (Nancy, 1767 – Paris, 1855) Presumed portraits of the Murat children Miniature on ivory Signed lower right and monogrammed in the center On the reverse, a “Bulgari. Roma” Diameter: 7.5 cm Note: “The Murat family and children were painted very often and in various ways by our miniaturist… first, in the miniature belonging to Count Primoli, they are seen having fun picnicking on the grass; in the one by Mr. Gutman, they are gathered around their lovely mother; and finally, in the portrait by Madame Taigny, we see the two eldest children: Napoleon Achille—the godson of Hortense and Bonaparte, born in 1801—and the second child, Laetitia Josephine, her father’s favorite, who later became the Marquise Pepoli. The third child, Lucien Charles, is the father of the present-day Murats, and the youngest daughter, Julie Caroline, married Count Rasponi… ” Quoted from E. Basily-Callimaki, *J.-B. Isabey, His Life and Times*, Paris, 1909.