Lot 250: ETIENNE CHARLES LE GUAY (FRENCH, 1762-1846)

An important miniature of a young lady formerly called Pauline Bonaparte, Princess Borghese, three-quarter length seated on a grassy bank holding an open book in her left hand, in white dress, multi-coloured embroidered cashmere stole draped over her right shoulder, her right arm raised to her forehead, tortoiseshell comb in her upswept and curled dark brown hair; flowers and foliage background (artist's joins)
signed 'Le Guay.' (mid-left)
oval, 8 3/4 in. (222 mm.) high, gilt-metal frame

Arenenberg, Napoleonmuseum, Miniaturen und Karikaturen, 1954, no. 27 (lent by Ernst Holzscheiter, Meilen).
Geneva, Musée d'art et d'histoire, Chefs-d'oeuvre de la miniature et de la gouache, 1956, no. 263 (as a portrait of Pauline Bonaparte, lent by Ernst Holzscheiter, Meilen).

L. R. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe, Graz, 1964, I, p. 484, praised as 'One of the most important min. on iv. signed: Le Guay that I know of is the portr. of Pauline Bonaparte in the Holzscheiter Coll., Meilen', II, p. 993, no. 711, illustrated III, pl. 351, no. 711.
Musée Cognacq-Jay - Les Miniatures, Paris, 2002, pp. 113, 133.

Maxime Hébert, Paris, no. 1010.
Ernst Holzscheiter, Meilen, inv. no. 260, M/D 0604; sale, part I, Sotheby's, London, 28 March 1977, lot 178 (as a portrait of Pauline Bonaparte).

END OF SALE

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