Miniature, Joseph Werner, Self- portrait, Swiss school, 1662

An artist posing in colour before an Italianate monochrome painting, depicting three cherubs gathered around a tame lion, with a collonade and a domed building in the background.

Purchased with funds from the Stephenson Bequest

Purchased in 1931

This painting by the Swiss artist Joseph Werner depicts a self-portrait staged as an allegory of painting. The figure’s pose exhibits the self-confidence of an academically trained painter and succeeds in advertising both the young artist’s abilities in portrait painting and his skilled draughtsmanship. This self-portrait is the only known work from Werner’s Italian stay where he gained a reputation as a miniature painter even though his work also includes larger works such as ceiling paintings. In Rome he was in contact, either as pupil or friend, with such artists as Nicolas Poussin, Carlo Maratti and Andrea Sacchi, whose influence is seen in a sometimes contradictory way in his work.

Shortly after completing this miniature portrait, Werner was summoned by Louis XIV to Paris where he was successful primarily as a painter of portrait miniatures in mythological guise (see for example Louis XIV as Apollo in his Chariot, c. 1663–4; Versailles, Château).

Miniature painting originally referred to the art of painting in watercolour on vellum (fine animal skin). It developed in the early 16th century out of the tradition of illuminated manuscripts (hand-written books). In England, miniature was predominantly a portrait art. It was practised by specialist miniature painters, such as Nicholas Hilliard (1547–1619). On the Continent, miniature painting as a portrait art had a few great practitioners, such as the French painter Jean Clouet (1516?–1572). But not even Clouet was a specialist. He worked both in miniature and in large in oil, as did Werner.

Werner left Paris in 1667, settling for 13 years in Augsburg, at that time the leading centre for bourgeois art in southern Germany. He was in contact with Joachim von Sandrart, who worked in Augsburg in 1670–74, and with other artists who had formed a private academy. Werner’s prestige as an exponent of the academic idea was such that in 1696 he was appointed director of the academy founded by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg, although he was hardly known as an artist in Berlin.

The surviving oeuvre securely attributed to him comprises only 56 oil paintings, 47 miniatures, 60 drawings and 2 etchings (Glaesemer).

This miniature was engraved in reverse by Franz Ertinger (c.1640-1710) as the frontispiece to a set of 10 plates illustrating Ovid's Metamorphoses, published by Jean A le Poutre in Rome (see E.190-1952).

In this miniature, the artist portrayed himself as an allegory of painting. It shows the young artist in full possession of his technical skills, exhibiting the self-confidence of an academically trained painter. This is the only known work from his stay in Italy before he was summoned to France by Louis XIV establishing a long lasting reputation which led the Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg to appoint him as the director of the Berlin Academy in 1696.

P.168-1931