Dated 1839. Signed Bertrand. Portrait In Miniature Against A Landscape Background

The art of the miniature is an ancient one, with ravishing portraits known since the Renaissance, but it really began to develop, widely diffused among the European bourgeoisie, at the end of the XVIIIE and especially under the Empire and the Restoration, the portraits produced took on an unprecedented scope.
This is what we see with the one shown here, 15 cm high by 12 cm wide, of a woman in a fashionable black velvet dress, testimony to her widowhood, but enhanced by a straw-yellow shawl and coquettishly coiffed.
A country landscape between a loggia column and a red curtain is reminiscent of Italy.
The staging is refined, subtle, the finesse of the touch remarkable, the face precisely depicted, the hands long and delicate.
Time has done its work, but nothing really sad, just a slight melancholy.
A lesson in psychology is given to us by this painter, who signed Bertrand and dated it 1839.
Many well-known miniaturists carry this no, but few have worked with such size.
Fortunately, the miniature is set in a contemporary mahogany frame.
It is in very good condition.