Portrait of a Man

Description This miniature of an unidentified older man has a later gold frame. He wears a powdered wig, a light blue striped coat, and a vest edged with gold embroidery. Jean Coteau was an enameller who worked from about 1782 at the porcelain factory of Sevres where he decorated porcelain with enamels imitating precious stones over stamped paillettes of gold. His name is found on numerous clock-dials of the end of the Louis XVI period.

Provenance Likely Henry Walters, Baltimore, before 1901 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] At left: Coteau 1777

Credit Acquired by William T. or, more likely, Henry Walters