Fine Antique French Portrait Miniature, Mother and Child, in 4.5" Frame, Easel Back
I'm betting this is after (aprés) a painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805, Paris). Doesn't it look like it to you? Or perhaps it just looks so much like one in particular, "La Petite Soeur, a contemplative young girl, oil on canvas, 40 x 32.5 cm, framed", which original sold through Dorotheum at $92,000 plus hammer in 2011 (look online for it to see for yourself). That said, it's a very charming miniature, and more likely the type made as a Grand Tour souvenir, after the paintings seen and loved by the travelers. If I'm right, and I think I am, it would have been a thrilling souvenir of someone's visit to perhaps the Louvre, Paris. There are really 2 types of miniatures: those done of a person, directly, artist and sitting actual person - one of a kind, and those done after the works of another artist. Of those, 2 types: some souvenir in nature and some political in nature, such as the multiples Napoleon and Josephine had done and passed out freely, creating their fame. This woul