Lami, G - portrait of four heads

This miniature portrait is unsigned, but has been attributed to the French artist G E Lami, who is recorded as active from 1808 - 1818. The sitters are unknown, but as their heads are shown in clouds, it is probable that it is a mourning portrait. 944,

Although unsigned, this painting is in a style invented by J.-B. Isabey, as a so-called "portrait aerien" (aerial portrait). Sitters were portrayed as in if clouds, and it is usually non-specific as to whether they represent live persons, or mourning portraits.

It is also similar in style to a somewhat larger painting on canvas, (35 x 42 cm), attributed to Friedrich Johann Gottlieb Lieder (1780 Potsdam - 1859 Budapest), called Franz Lieder, who was a very well-known Austro-German portraitist, portrait miniature painter and lithograph artist of the first half of the 19th century, father of another well-known portraitist Friedrich Lieder the Younger (1807-1884). That larger portrait is currently on offer by Boris Wilnitsky Fine Arts.