Vincent Lesseur’s Portrait Miniatures on Ivory

Studies of the Workshop on the Example of a Group of Miniatures from the Collection of the Princes Czartoryski in the National Museum in Kraków

Abstract

As part of preparations for the new exhibition at the Princes’ Czartoryski Museum, a branch of the National Museum in Kraków, it was necessary to carry out conservation work on some of the miniatures by Wincenty Lesseur in this collection, which in turn made it possible to examine the artist’s workshop. In order to identify and analyze Lesseur’s workshop in this group of portraits, measurements were made using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (macro-XRF) and Raman spectroscopy (RS). Microscopic observations were made, and photographs were taken in analytical lights. The research made it possible to identify more than a dozen pigments as well as starch on the surface of the objects. Of particular interest is the artist’s use of cobalt blue as early as 1796, before the pigment gained wider popularity in the first half of the 19th century. The revealed methods of applying and combining the various pigments allowed Lesseur’s painting technology to be developed. It should be emphasized that the study of a set of miniatures that came out of one excellent hand is an exceptional circumstance, especially for a workshop of a miniaturist working in Poland.