Young Mozart by Salomon Guillaume Counis (Swiss, 1785-1859) Miniature Portrait After Prud'hon

Our impressive miniature portrait of a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) after the original painting by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823) is attributed to the Swiss master, Salomon Guillaume Counis (1785-1859).  5 1/8 by 4 1/4 inches, mounted in its original ornate silver frame.  Signed "Counis". A female portrait of Flora by Counis, in identical frame, can be found in the Kunstsammlung Stadt Biel Ville de Bienne, the city museum of the Swiss town of Stadt Biel, Ville de Bienne.

Prud'hon was a French Romantic painter and draughtsman known for his portraits such as Madame Georges Anthony and Her Two Sons (1796) and portraits of each of Napoleon's two wives.  Prud'hon's Mozart (and Counis' faithful representation as well) is realistic and emotional, unlike the vast majority of works painted both during and after his life that usually depict the genius as an idealized and romantic figure, as a member of the aristocracy, almost always white-wigged and red-jacketed, even as a child.  Here instead, Mozart is shown seated in an ordinary chair in brown coat jacket without wig.  Prud'hon's portrait of Mozart was reproduced by Braun, Clement et Cie as an engraving or etching as early as 1889, and this is the only painted copy of the original by Prud'hon that we have ever seen come to market.

Counis was born in Kölleda in Thuringia, near Sömmerda.  The son of an engraver, he studied with Wolfgang Adam Toepffer and in Paris with Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy in 1808.  He was the painter of Élisa Bonaparte, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and sister of Napoleon who took him in 1810 to Florence where he has awardedthe title of "court enamel painter".  During the Restoration he moved to Geneva, and returned to Paris in 1815. He eventually settled permanently in Florence in 1830.

In Paris, he exhibited at the Salon from 1810 to 1817, achieving a gold medal in 1817 for his portrait of Count de Forbin.

He authored a treatise on enamels entitled "Some memories followed by a dissertation on enamel on porcelain and a small treatise for the use of the painter in enamel" (Éditeur Galileienne, 1842).

Three recent auction sales of Counis miniatures include:  lot 186 of Sotheby's sale in London on May 7, 2020, that closed at 15,000 GBP; lot 358 of Sotheby's sale in London on December 5, 2019, that closed at 8,125 GBP; and lot 151 of Sotheby's sale in London January 17, 2019, that closed at 9,375 GBP.

Subjects he painted included:  

• Portraits of Marie-Anne Elisa Bonaparte and her daughter Napoléone Elisa Bacciochi in the collection of the Louvre.

• La Galatée enamel after Girodet.

• Enamel portraits of members of Napoleon's family painted in Florence in 1810 and following years, in Ajaccio, Musée de la Maison Bonaparte, Corsica, including among others, Jérôme, King of Westphalia.

• Portrait of Count de Forbin, exhibited at the Salon of 1817 which won the gold medal.

• Jean-Antioche Junot (1771-1813), General under Napoleon in Musée de la Légion d'Honneur.

• A young peasant woman in prayer, exhibited at the Salon of 1817.

• Portrait La belle Grecque, Marie Pauline Bonaparte, Princess Borghese, painted in 1810 in the Uffizi, Florence.

• Portrait of Madame de Staël after Baron Gérard, exhibited at the Salon of 1822.

• Portrait of Louis XVIII after Paulin Guéri the prince deigned to congratulate the author on his talent on the occasion of this portrait

• Four portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Berry, during the birth of the Duke of Bordeaux

• Three portraits of the Duchess of Berry in her widow's costume, executed according to the princess's intentions

• 18 enamels after Correggio, Andrea del Sarto, Rubens, Raphaël, Titian, in Museo Civico d'Arte Antica and Palazzo Madama, Turin.