Dressed in Teal

The Hervé family included several artists over three generations between the 1780s and the 1850s, all specialising in portrait miniatures or painted silhouettes or indeed both.

Signed Hervé without an initial, it is therefore difficult to attribute this portrait with absolute certainty. The style of the lady’s dress with its pleated bodice and pointed waistline, together with her ringletted hairstyle, dates it to the 1840s and so suggests it may be the work of Charles Hervé II who exhibited miniatures at the Royal Academy as C. S. Hervé between 1835 and 1858.

The portrait is well painted and retains its colours. It is set with a gilt-metal mount in a traditional papier-mâché frame with an acorn hanger. The miniature is in fine condition; the frame has the usual nibbles.