Daniel Saint was a worthy successor to prominent portrait-miniaturist Jean-Baptiste-Jacques Augustin; Saint rose to prominence painting official portraits of Napoleon and members of his court. While his early works are soft and vaporous in style, the mature works are more precisely painted with a pure, vibrant palette.
Saint’s "Lady with a Greyhound" is a tour de force of the miniaturist’s art. The large size and ambitious composition blur the traditional boundaries between painting and portrait miniature. Constructing the ivory support for such large miniatures—often called cabinet miniatures—was a complex process, limiting the maximum practicable size. Rather than being carried on the person, cabinet miniatures would have been kept in a case or framed for display in an intimate setting.
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