Jj Karpff, Dit Casimir (att): Exceptional Double Portrait On Paper; Gold-mounted Box C1800

Exceptional box with two portraits of women attributed to Jean-Jacques Karpff, known as Casimir.

This very large box is in brown leather with large 14k yellow gold hoops.
The setting is not hallmarked but has been acid tested (negative at 18k but the touch takes time to fade; positive at 14k).

Two magnificent portraits adorn the lid and the bottom of the box. They are two portraits of women, perhaps a mother and her daughter.
They are dressed in fairly simple shirt dresses that were fashionable at the very end of the 18th century.

The woman depicted on the lid is older, she is depicted in a bust, slightly turned to her right. Her hair is covered with a large knotted ribbon letting a cascade of curls escape. She is seated on an armchair whose back can be seen with a knife-blade trim.

In the background, the woman is younger, the woman has the same posture with a slightly more developed shirt dress. She is wearing a large scarf forming a hat and letting loose curly hair comparable to the previous portrait.
She is sitting on an armchair with a scrolled back.

Both women seem to sketch a small smile, a pensive air with their gaze lost in the distance. A great softness and serenity emerge from these portraits.

These two portraits are not signed but the very high quality of the production and certain stylistic details call to mind the name of Jean-Jacques Karpff.

Jean-Jacques Karpff is a miniaturist painter and draftsman born in 1770 in Colmars and died in Versailles in 1829. A student of Jacques-Louis David, he is considered one of the most gifted portraitists of his time. He presented a portrait of the Empress Josephine at the 1808 Salon, which made his master say "one cannot push the art of drawing any further".
His miniatures are always executed in grisaille and he represents his subjects with remarkable accuracy, supported by great technical virtuosity.
Nicknamed Casimir, it is said that this name was given to him by studio comrades who found his surname unpronounceable.

We observe on these two portraits aesthetic and technical characteristics typical of the work of Jean-Jacques Karpff.
The most obvious "trademark" of Karpff is this work of shading with hatching. If this technique is very visible on the works on ivory, it is more discreet, finer, with the portraits on paper. We observe it in particular on the dresses and coats of the two women and to a lesser extent on the backgrounds.
The curly hair is, as in many referenced works, very finely executed with tight curls and a great shine rendered by the white background left in reserve.
We also find thin lips and noses with frank, almost sharp lines, complex and realistic draperies or even very light highlights of white gouache.
The attention to detail characteristic of the artist is found in all these elements but also in the care given to the backs of the armchairs on which the subjects pose.

See for comparison, the portrait of Count Jean-Charles Joseph de Laumond and the Countess of Laumond, kept at the Unterlinden museum in Colmar (inv 99.8.1); the portrait of Jacques-Louis Etienne de Reise and Colette Thérèse Godefroy de Suresnes (private collection) or the Portrait of Jean-Jacques de Reiset (private collection).

Part of Casimir's production consists of tondo portraits on rectangular sheets. These two portraits may come from these works, cut out to be integrated into this box because the portraits are slightly smaller than the views. These sheets were signed under the portrait, which may explain the absence of a signature on our box.

Magnificent box made of precious materials, with large gold hoops contrasting admirably with the brown tortoiseshell, sublimated by these two incredible miniatures attributed with almost certainty to one of the greatest portraitists of the turn of the 18th century.

The photos do not pay homage to the artist's hand and it is difficult to render all the talent and finesse.

8.1 cm in diameter
7 cm in diameter for the portraits only
2.7 cm thick

109.8 grams gross

Good condition. The tortoiseshell has moved over time and caused small cracks and the lifting of the frames containing the portraits. Some brown stains, very light at the bottom. Ripples in the sheets of paper.

Hand delivery in Paris or insured Colissimo shipping.

France: €15
Europe: €20
World: €35