JEAN GEORGET (Paris 1763 – 1823 Paris)
Jean Georget (Paris 1763 – 1823 Paris)
Portrait miniature of a mother and child
Watercolour, circular, diameter 7.3 cm (2.9 inch)
Contained in an ebonised wood frame with brass inner slip, 12 x 12 cm (4.7 x 4.7 inch)
Signed ‘Georget’ (lower left)
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Jean Georget was born in Paris in 1763 and trained under Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), the eminent Neoclassical painter of the day.1 Georget initially specialised in miniatures, exhibiting his works at the prestigious annual Paris Salons from 1796 onwards. As his career progressed, Georget shifted focus toward porcelain painting and was tenured at the Sèvres factory. A portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte in Sèvres porcelain, painted by Georget, is preserved in the collections of the Uffizi in Florence.2
This very moving depiction of a mother and her child in loving embrace is a very rare surviving signed portrait miniature by Georget, probably executed in the years around 1800. The composition appears to be influenced by the iconic self-portrait of Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun with her daughter Julie of 1789 in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (fig.).3
1. For Georget, see L. Dezobry and T. Bachelet, Dictionnaire de biographie (…), vol. I, Paris 1878, p. 1169.
2. Porcelain, 86 x 66 cm, inv. 1890, no. 8749.
3. Oil on panel, 130 x 94 cm, inv. no. 3068; Jordana Pomeroy, Daring. The life and art of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Los Angeles 2025, p. 46, repr.
