This unsigned miniature portrait shows a mourning scene and is set into the top of a horn snuff box. The tombstone has the letters N H and an inscription around the edge which reads 'HONOR ET AMICITIA". 1108.
A kind visitor has suggested it is perhaps by Jacques Joseph de Gault (French, 1738–after 1812), who made many similar scenes on boxes of various styles. Often decorated with images derived from ancient Greek and Roman history in the style of cameos,
He perfected the imitation of antique carved bas-reliefs between 1758 and 1760 when he worked as a painter on porcelain for the Royal Manufacture of Sevres. His neoclassical works, very popular in the time of Louis XVI, were very successful, and in 1787 De Gault was commissioned to design the famous jewel box for Queen Marie-Antoinette by the cabinetmaker Jean-Ferdinand Schwerdfeger (1734-1818). There are examples in the collections of several major museums.
However, another, possibly more likely option, is Piat Joseph Sauvage, (1744-1818) a Flemish artist, who painted this example, titled L'offrande à l'amour, which in colouring and style is very similar. It was sold at auction on 27 November, 2024. It had an estimate of EUR 800-1200, but sold for EUR 2624. See, https://www.artcurial.com/en/sales/6055/lots/121-a
Sauvage was a painter, sculptor, printmaker and academic lecturer from the Southern Netherlands. He was known for his decorative paintings of interiors, grisailles and miniatures using trompe l'oeil effects as well as his small-scale portrait carvings.
De Gault, and Sauvage both painted in similar styles, but de Gault works seem more highly desired. Their portrait style, when in profile, has been likened to works by the miniature painter Charles Guillaume Alexandre Bourgeois (1759-1832). There are multiple examples by Bourgeois in the Louvre catalogue, and one example in this Artists and Ancestors collection, as depicted below.
Sauvage also painted this miniature titled, A l'Amitié which was sold at auction in September 2023.
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