Rare Coloured Profile

Henry Hervé advertised himself as a ‘miniature painter, profilist, and jeweller’ but examples of his miniatures are very rare. It may be that, lacking a signature or a label, they are not recognised as his work. Fortunately this profile retains an intact trade label so it is undisputedly by the hand of Henry Hervé I.

The sitter is a middle-aged professional gentleman in an unpowdered wig and black coat. The profile resides in the original papier-mâché frame with a star burst hanger and is backed with the artist’s unbroken trade label. The label is an unrecorded variant of label no. 3 with his two studio addresses – no. 12 Cheapside and 23 New Bond Street – appearing in reverse order. By this stage in his career Hervé has cut upwards of 10,000 likenesses with the aid of his Hawkins’s Patent Machine.

Both the watercolour profile and the frame are in fine condition.