AIMEE-ZOE LIZINKA DE MIRBEL, NEE RUE (FRENCH, 1796-1849)

The present portrait led to Lizinka's appointment by the king as Peintre en miniature de la Chambre du Roi. According to A. Jal (supra), Lizinka, who without royal appointment was not allowed immediate access to the king, painted him through a gap in the door whilst he was eating lunch. Aware that he was being painted, the king was sympathetic towards her and remained relatively still throughout. The portrait was finished and it gained her official status as court painter, a position she maintained under Charles X and his successor, Louis-Philippe. She was the most celebrated female miniature painter of her day, exhibiting at the Paris Salon and teaching miniature painting to pupils at her studio. A rectangular variant of the present miniature, dated 1819, by her is in the Wallace Collection (supra).
The sale of the artist's estate in 1849 contained as lot 4 a miniature of 'Louis XVIII Mlle Lizinka Rue, 1818' which may well be the present portrait.