Attribué à Daniel RABEL (1578-1637)

Lot 53
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Estimation :
3000 - 4000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 3 864EUR
Attribué à Daniel RABEL (1578-1637)
Portrait of a gentleman Gouache, watercolor, and gold highlights on vellum Presented on a round 18th century ivory box Miniature: 4,5 x 3,5 cm Box: D. 6,8 cm Comparison with the drawn, engraved and painted portraits of the period did not allow to identify the figure represented. This gentleman, about fifty years old, probably has a military past or activity since he wears a gorgeron on his pourpoint. It is nevertheless a ceremonial portrait, confirmed by the presence of the diagonally flowered scarf on his chest. The shape of the strawberry and the costume make it possible to date him from the beginning of the 17th century. The portrait is of a very high quality of execution and naturalism rare for this period. The miniature is finely detailed, the moustache and beard worked line by line, in the manner of an engraving. Daniel Rabel (1578-1637) is the son of the painter and engraver Jean Rabel, himself an illuminator, renowned miniaturist, draftsman and engraver. He worked for the Court as a draftsman of ballet costumes, like Inigo Jones in England, and as a painter of flowers on vellum for Gaston d'Orléans. He was also commissioned to paint the portrait of Anne of Austria in Madrid and was the drawing master for the son of Charles de Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers. Sources tell us that he also painted miniatures which he eventually signed with the monogram "D.R.". We will note among others the miniature known as "Gabrielle d'Estrées", formerly part of the Warneck collection (IV), (sale in Vienna, November 18, 1926, lot n°45), but also a slightly later miniature of another gentleman (sale Sotheby's London, June 2, 1975, lot 28), presenting however a naturalism and a work of shadows extremely similar to those of our miniature. The few examples signed and identified allow us to recognize Daniel Rabel's talent for portraiture, no doubt transmitted by his father Jean, and prized by the Court and the royal family. The stylistic charact
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