Portrait miniature of Jacques Prosper Masséna, Comte d’Essling and his brother François Victor

This miniature features Jacques Prosper and François Victor, the two sons of the illustrious general André Masséna (1758 – 1817). It was painted by one of the most talented and famous miniature artists of the time, Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin (1759 – 1832), who was from Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, and active in Paris from 1781 onwards.
 
Nearly ten years after completing the portrait of General Masséna (1797), Augustin started work on this miniature painting of the Duc de Rivoli's two sons. The eldest, Jacques Prosper (1793-1821), is depicted in a chair, with his left arm drawn around his younger brother's waist (François Victor, 1799-1863). In his right hand he holds a laurel sprig, symbolising the numerous military victories won by his father.
 
This double portrait is irresistibly charming and figures amongst some of the greatest paintings produced by Augustin. Although it does not feature in the 1806 catalogue, it is higly likely that the painting was presented at the 1806 Salon, the year in which it was completed. Despite its absence from the accompanying literature, this hypothesis is supported by Chaussard's text in Le Pausanias français for 1806, from which we learn that Augustin displayed a miniature painting featuring two children: “These two children are perhaps more brilliant [in the portrait] than in nature itself: we must not tarry in warning this skilled artist and beseech him not to give in to the blind pride of parents who never fail to cry out like the owl in the fable [Jean de la Fontaine, l'Aigle et le Hibou]: 'my little ones are adorable…'” (Pierre Jean-Baptiste Chaussard, Le Pausanias français, Paris, 1806, p. 375). Despite this criticism, which in our opinion is a little harsh, the miniature probably attracted a good deal of admiration from the visitors to the Salon, and it is hardly surprising that, for that same exhibition, the artist received the gold medal from Vivant Denon.
 
François Victor Masséna, second Duc de Rivoli and third Prince d'Essling, later went on to become an ornithologist. His collection contained more than twelve thousand specimens and eventually ended up at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. François Victor married Anne de Belle by whom he had four children. His brother, Jacques Prosper died before he was twenty-eight and produced no heir.
 
Augustin was highly innovative in the French miniature painting world. His exceptionally careful and minute style brought out every little detail in the painting, leaving nothing undefined or blurred. Just like the Flemish masters of the Middle Ages, he placed elements and details alongside one another, encouraging the viewer's eye to take in every single aspect of the painting.
 
Bernd Pappe (tr. H.D.W.)
Art historian and restorer
Exhibition curator, “Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin. Peintre en miniature”
 
April 2010