SICARDY Louis Marie (1743-1825), PORTRAIT OF Antoine BARNAVE CIRCA 1785

TECHNIQUE: Watercolor and gouache on ivory, protected under a convex glass

ARSTIST: Louis Marie SICARD dit SICARDY ou SICARDI

SIGNED:

FRAME : Original gold frame (5 punches), two sides. On the back : hair work and a handwritten label sealed with a black wax seal.

PORTRAIT SIZE: 5,8cm

FRAME SIZE: 6,5cm

DESCRIPTION :

Historic miniature by  Louis Marie Sicard  said Sicardy, showing the young  Antoine-Pierre-Josef-Marie Barnave ( 1761-1793 ) .

The miniature kept, sealed under glass in the lapel of its gold frame, a lock of hair mixed by gold ears, retained by pearls. Antoine Barnave's initials are painted there : A.B. and the date (17)85. On the glass is fixed an old handwritten black label and a rest of black wax seal : " Barnave, Min(iature) précieuse " .

Barnave had already used  Sicardy's talent in 1784, for another simpler portrait, now in  Louvre museum (inv. RF 5084), as a presumed portrait of Antoine Barnave. We find the same hazel eyes and the square chin there. Our miniature of 1785 shows the young lawyer Barnave wearing an elegant wig and a striped suit. He pauses on a  foliage background which the pictorial technique is inspired by Hall. We find this technique in some miniatures by Sicardy at that time. The face is painted in this dotted line so typical of the famous miniaturist.

 

Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave (22 October 1761 – 29 November 1793) was a French politician, and, together with Honoré Mirabeau, one of the most influential orators of the early part of the French Revolution. He is most notable for correspondence with Marie Antoinette in an attempt to set up a constitutional monarchy and for being one of the founding members of the Feuillants.

On the arrest of the king and the royal family during the escape to Varennes, Barnave was one of the three appointed to conduct them back to Paris, along with Jerome Petion and the Marquis de Latour-Maubourg. During the journey, he began to feel compassion for Queen Marie-Antoinette and the Royal Family, and subsequently attempted to do what he could to alleviate their sufferings. In one of his most powerful speeches, he maintained the inviolability of the king’s person.

He was condemned for treason on the evidence of papers detailing his extensive clandestine correspondence with Queen Marie Antoinette found in the Tuileries Palace, and guillotined the 29th November 1793.


CONDITION: Very good original condition. Never opened. Original seal all around glass.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bénézite, Lespinasse, Blattel, Schidlof, Darmon, Foster, Michel Lauraine page 114, Lemoine Bouchard. Louvre page 317