Lot 62: JOHN JAMES MASQUERIER, R.A. 1778-1855

A GIRL LOOKING AT HERSELF IN THE MIRROR

A GIRL LOOKING AT HERSELF IN THE MIRROR

measurements note
88 by 66 cm., 34 1/2 by 26 in.

oil on canvas

EXHIBITED

British Institution, 1808, no.319

LITERATURE

R.R.M. See, Masquerier and his Circle, 1922, pp.196 & 246

NOTE

Exhibited at the British Institution in 1808, the present painting may relate to the painting exhibited at the Royal Academy in the same year, entitled January and May (no.189). This showed what would appear to be the same model, possibly the actress Mlle Parisot, in a similar pose with a raised arm, as the wife of an old husband, beckoning to her lover.

Sociable, attractive to women, and an inveterate traveller, Masquerier moved in the world of theatre and the arts as a young man in the early 1800s. Born in Chelsea in 1778 of French origin, he was taken to Paris where he studied under the tutelage of Vincent and Carle Vernet. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1792, and later worked as Hoppner's pupil and assistant. His friendships with fashionable and ambitious actresses, such as Dorothy Jordan, mistress of the Duke of Clarence, Anna Maria Crouch, pupil of Thomas Linley, and mistress of the Prince of Wales, Mrs Inchbald and others, certainly advanced his position, and gave him access to a more elevant level of patron. He travelled in Ireland and Scotland, where he knew Raeburn, whose style he was also influenced by.