Lot 213: CLAUDE-JEAN BESSELIÈVRE (FRENCH, B. 1779)

A young gentleman seated with his left arm draped over the back of a wooden chair, in blue coat, white waistcoat and tied cravat, brown cloak draped over his right shoulder, curling brown hair and sideburns
signed 'Besselievre' (lower right)
rectangular, 4 1/4 x 3 3/4 in. (108 x 96 mm.), heavy ormolu frame with pierced outer border and scrolling foliage

Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, Das gemalte Kleinporträt, 1931, no. 439 (lent by Professor Dr. Emerich Ullmann).
Geneva, Musée d'art et d'histoire, Chefs-d'oeuvre de la miniature et de la gouache, 1956, no. 40 (lent by Ernst Holzscheiter, Meilen).

L. R. Schidlof, Die Bildnisminiatur in Frankreich im XVII., XVIII. und XIX. Jahrhundert, Vienna/Leipzig, 1911, p. 385, illustrated pl. XXII.
L. Grünstein, Die Sammlung Professor Dr. Emerich Ullmann, Vienna, 1925, p. 55, illustrated pl. 84.

Professor Dr. Emerich Ullmann (1861-1937), Vienna; Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 31 August 1937, lot 27.
Ernst Holzscheiter, Meilen, inv. no. 69, M/D 0139; sale, part I, Sotheby's, London, 28 March 1977, lot 170.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.