In the United Kingdom, portraits painted in miniature format from the 16th to the 19th century are highly sought after, with passionate collectors and numerous specialist antique dealers. In London, famous museums such as the Wallace Collection and the National Portrait Gallery exhibit very beautiful examples.
This enthusiasm is less in France where this sector of the art market still remains quite confidential, even if in recent years we have seen a clear revival of interest in these works, as, conversely, for large portraits on canvas or wood. The latter being difficult to install in a modern interior due to their size, miniature portraits are more easily attractive, especially since amateurs consider them a bit like “old-fashioned selfies”.
This is how Thierry Jaegy, of the Jaegy-Theoleyre gallery, sees the arrival of a new category of buyers, younger and without any knowledge of art history. Above all, they look for pretty portraits likely to nourish their imagination or to immerse them in the atmosphere of literary texts studied in high school, such as representations of Balzacian bourgeois or nobles sketched in Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos.
Pretty pieces for less than 1,000 euros
The best miniaturist painters are not known to the general public. We can cite the English Nicholas Hilliard, Richard Cosway and Isaac Oliver, the French Jean-Baptiste Isabey, François Meuret and Daniel Saint and the Swede Peter Adolf Hall. Some of them command high prices in the auction room and reach several thousand or tens of thousands of euros. Thierry Jaegy emphasizes, however, that you can start a nice collection with pieces by unknown artists for less than 1,000 euros, and acquire beautiful miniatures with renowned signatures for prices between 2,000 and 4,000 euros.
You must be careful before any purchase: hazardous or misleading attributions and abusive restorations are legion. For a novice, recourse to professionals, such as an antique dealer or an auction expert, is essential. If this type of collection tempts you, take a look on November 27 in Paris at Artcurial. The auction house is offering 172 miniatures from the Pierre Jourdan-Barry collection for estimates of between 400 and 50,000 euros. Enough to decorate an interior while betting on a promising trend.