Round portrait of a little girl (22-month-old) with bright black eyes and red hair, draped in a semi-transparent shirt which leaves her chest and stomach bare, keeping a red apple in her right hand and two others lying in the fold of her clothes, standing against a dark natural background: bushes, leaves, an apple tree, blue skies, clouds, etc.
Oil on metal; in an ormolu frame, in a wooden frame.
Diameter without frames 8 cm, with frames – 12.6 cm.
Sitter: Courtois, Fortunée-Florentine Elisabeth (French, August 23, 1800 г. – after 1878).
Inscription (handwriting, nut ink): Fortunée, Florentine Elisabeth | Courtois a 22 mois. | née 5e fructidor an 8 ||
Attributed to Lié Louis Périn-Salbreux (French, 1753 – 1817).
Fortunée-Florentine Elisabeth Courtois is a mother of Maurice Joly (French, 1829 – 1878).
See also in this collection: blog, LIB-0460, blog, LIB-1038.2016, and Une Épave de l’Ancien Bateau by Tout-Paris. A Lost Article by Proust?
The portrait was sold at Drouot (Paris) in 2020 with the following description: “École FRANÇAISE de la fin du XVIIIe siècle
Fortunée Florentine Courtois enfant en chemise, en pied dans la nature, tenant trois pommes. Miniature sur ivoire, identifiée au revers : « Florentine Fortunée Elisabeth / Courtois à 22 mois / le 5e ( ?) Fructidor an VIII » [août 1800]; Diam. à vue : 7 cm; Cadre rond en bois tourné et noirci. Florentine Courtois, fille d’André et d’Elisabeth Corbara, épousa vers 1818 Lambert Philippe Joly, conseiller général du Jura, avocat ; leur fils Maurice Joly, avocat, fut ministre de la Justice du gouvernement provisoire en 1870 et grand maître du Grand Orient de France”.
Maurice Joly was a lawyer, but nothing else in his description given by Drouot is true.
From this inscription, we learned that Fortunée-Florentine Elisabeth Courtois was born on August 23, 1800. We were unable to verify this from any other source. From Morice Joly autobiography (Maurice Joly, son passé, son programme par lui-même. — Paris, Lacroix, Verbœckoven et Ce, 1870) we know that she was born in Bastia and that her father, Laurent Courtois (in some sources André François Désiré Courtois, born c. 1771), was a treasurer of Corsican troops under Napoleon Bonapart. Her mother was Elisabeth Marie-Grâcieuse Corbara (born c. 1750).
