Sicard, Louis - An Unknown Girl in Scottish Costume

Although this miniature portrait is unsigned and the sitter is not known, it is believed to be by Louis Lucas Marie Sicard (1746-1825). Sicard was a highly regarded miniaturist and painter to the Court of Louis XVI.

There is another version in the Wallace Collection catalogue, shown below, which is entitled "An Unknown Girl in a Scottish Costume" - fig 125 in the Wallace Collection Catalogue and that version is signed "Sicardi 1799".

Although there is no Internet link to the image, for more about the Wallace Collection see Wallace Collection: Great British Watercolours in the Wallace ...

In the Wallace Collection Catalogue on page 156 there is also a note mentioning that Lespinasse (La Miniature en France au XVIIIe siecle - 1929) records another version of this portrait as being in the Jacquemart-Andre Museum in Paris.

This collector has recently communicated with the Jacquemart-Andre Museum in Paris, but they can find no record of their collection ever having included a version of this portrait. Thus it seems there was an error in Lespinasse.

However, as the Wallace Collection catalogue records that Lespinasse did include an illustration of the version in his book, as plate xxv, fig. 85, a second version must have existed.

It is therefore quite possible that the version included in this collection and depicted above, is the second version referred to by Lespinasse, as the quality of the miniature compares very favourably with the Wallace image shown here. 1107