Madame de Staël

Antique Brooch with Miniature Painting after Francois Gérard, France, circa 1890

€ 1,890.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

Antique Brooch with Miniature Painting after Francois Gérard, France, circa 1890

Description

This description was automatically translated from German. If you have any questions about this piece of jewellery, we will be happy to help!

In a frame of diamond roses and rubies, the brooch here shows the miniature portrait of a lady. It is Anne-Louise-Germaine Baroness von Staël-Holstein (1766-1817), also known as Germaine de Staël, whom we see here: A Geneva intellectual and writer who is considered a pioneer of French Romanticism. In the course of her career, she met important contemporaries such as Schiller and Goethe, Chateaubriand and Byron. Germaine de Staël ran an influential literary salon in Paris. She initially built her own literary reputation by means of philosophical essays, but she entered literary history with her work De l'Allemagne. With this treatise on the customs of German-speaking countries, the scientific culture of university towns, but above all German philosophy and literature, she introduced many French people to Romanticism. When the work was printed in 1810, it was confiscated and destroyed by Napoleonic censors because of its largely positive portrayal of Germans. Thus, it did not appear in London until 1813, around the same time as an English translation. It is to Germaine de Staël's credit that the term Romanticism first became a household word outside Germany; indeed, many literary scholars agree that without de Staël's work, there would have been no French Romanticism in the first place. Just how enduring de Staël's influence was can be seen in the brooch here, created around 1890. The miniature portrait, framed under glass, is based on a portrait of Madame painted by Francois Gérard, which was presumably created posthumously (cf. our illustration). The painting was widely known through numerous reproductions, cf. for example this sheet in the NYPL. This also explains the coloration, which deviates from the original: miniaturists, like cameo cutters, usually resorted to engraved and thus monochrome originals. The hallmarks on the clasp of the brooch show that it was made in France. After 1955 it was hallmarked again in the Netherlands. We were able to discover it in East Westphalia.

Size & Details

Madame de Staël

€ 1,890.00 ^*

Content 1 piece

Incl. VAT, Shipping

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Madame de Staël

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