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Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-c. 1780)

Charles le Brun (1619-1690) c.1770-80

7.2 x 5.6 cm (sight) | RCIN 421263

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  • Charles Le Brun was the dominant artist of later seventeenth-century France. A protégé of both Chancellor Pierre Séguier and Cardinal Richelieu, he accompanied Poussin to Rome in 1642, staying there for three years. On Le Brun’s return to Paris, he was appointed an official painter to King Louis XIV (and from 1664 Premier Peintre du Roi). He established himself as the leading decorative painter in France, was raised to the nobility in 1662 and was one of the founder members and later chancellor and rector of the Académie Royale. His lectures came to be accepted as providing the official standards of artistic correctness, promulgating the view that every aspect of artistic creation can be reduced to teachable rules and precepts. His power and influence continued to grow, to include responsibilities for royal building projects such as Versailles, for the furnishing of the palaces, for the royal collection of paintings and drawings, and for designing of tapestries for the official Gobelins tapestry factory. This miniature is one of the collection of copies of 224 self-portraits by artists in the Uffizi Palace, Florence, that Lord Cowper, the art collector and patron, commissioned Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-1780) to paint. He presented the miniatures to King George III in two batches, in 1773 and 1786. Macpherson followed the original self-portraits quite closely, but copied only the head and shoulders. He inscribed the artists' names on the backs of the miniatures – several differ from those in the modern Uffizi catalogue, notably: Bazzi, Bellini, Campi, Annibale Carracci, Gabbiani, Masaccio, Metsys, Moroni, Pencz, Licinio, Schiavone and Spada. None of the miniatures is signed, apart from Macpherson's own self-portrait, which is inscribed: Giuseppe Macpherson / Autore della serie (Giuseppe Macpherson / Author of the series).Macpherson was born in Florence, the son of Donald Macpherson, a footman in the service of Alexander, 2nd Duke of Gordon. He was a pupil of Pompeo Batoni and painted miniatures and enamel portraits in Italy, France and Germany, finally settling in Florence. A James Macpherson is recorded in London and Paris in 1754 but it is not certain that this is the same person. He was described in 1776 as having a special talent for painting on enamel and as being 'almost the only painter in Europe who possesses this art to perfection'. He had a distinguished client list which included some of the crowned heads and dignitaries of Europe. In 1778, he was invited to add his own self-portrait to the famous painters in the grand duke's collection as it 'would do honour to Florence to enrich the collection with a work which shows that we still have some men of true merit' according to Giuseppe Pelli, director of the Uffizi at the time.
    Provenance

    Presented to George III by Lord Cowper

  • Medium and techniques
    Measurements

    7.2 x 5.6 cm (sight)


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