Details
LEONARD SCHMITZ (1779-1848)
An album of 645 portraits of members of the British, German, Russian and Dutch courts
with inscription ‘181[?]-1848/ Dessins/ par/ Léonard Schmitz/ peintre en Miniature/ des Cours d’Angletterre, d’Allemagne/ de Russie et de Hollande/ Né en 1779 décédé en 1848’ (on the album’s cover)
graphite, gray wash and watercolor
leporello - format album - 37 pages, 958 x 558 in. (24.5 x 14.2 cm)
Provenance
with Librairie Louis Moorthamers, Brussels.
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Lot Essay

This unusual and fascinating album was probably a sort of working portfolio. It contains the extraordinary number of 645 miniature portraits, most of them drawn only in graphite, with a handful enriched with wash and watercolors. 232 are portraits of men with 31 of them in military attire. Another 131 are female portraits, and twenty depictions of children. Other drawings show only the main features of the face, leaving undescribed the sitter’s hair and attire.

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