Miniature Portrait: Ninon De Lenclos

Miniature portrait painted in gouache representing Ninon de Lenclos (1620-1705). Courtesan, woman of wit, letter writer and woman of letters noted as much for her erudition and her beauty as for her eventful love life with numerous adventures, notably with personalities of the time. She is shown in three-quarter view, smiling, long curly hair falling over her shoulders and wearing a deeply low-cut blue dress. She wears a choker pearl necklace as well as a brooch; it is from this that a beaded chain runs diagonally which joins the back of the dress in order to avoid indecent movement of the neckline. This miniature, based on the painting by Louis-Ferdinand Elle the Elder, is painted with delicacy and freshness. It is surrounded by chiseled gilded bronze topped with a large knot included in a blackened wooden frame. Handwritten inscription in ink and in English on the reverse difficult to decipher but the name of Ninon de Lenclos is easily deciphered.