Jeanne Doucet De Surigny (1762-1823), Portrait Of A Composer?, Miniature

Jeanne Doucet de Surigny (1762-1823) Portrait of a composer (?) with pen and musical score (difficult to decipher). The young woman holds a medallion with the initials EJ or EIG. Gouache. Diameter: 7.5 cm. Diameter with frame: 12 cm. Biography: In 1788, in Paris, Jeanne Glaesner married the banker Raphaël Pierre Doucet de Surigny, a Freemason and former Worshipful Master of the Lodge of Celestial Friendship. Active in Parisian artistic circles, she resided for many years on the rue du Faubourg Montmartre, a neighborhood favored by artists, despite her frequent moves. A recognized miniaturist, she exhibited regularly at the Salon of Painting and Sculpture from 1791 to 1806, as well as at the Salon de la Jeunesse in 1791 under the name Mme Surigny. After her husband's financial ruin and imprisonment in 1793, she raised her two children alone while continuing her career. Her work includes miniature portraits of political and cultural figures, such as Jean-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne and the actress Julie Candeille, now held in major institutions like the Louvre, the Musée Cognacq-Jay, and the National Museum of Stockholm. Her clientele consisted mainly of merchants passing through Paris, but also of provincial patrons, particularly from Nantes. Her portraits, generally half-length, demonstrate a strong professional practice, which she signed under various pseudonyms reflecting the evolution of her personal life and the revolutionary context.