The Painter Louis Joseph Maurice (1730–1820)

The miniature painter Hall was among a number of Swedish portraitists who enjoyed huge popularity in France, showing at the official Salon and patronized by the cultural and political elite. The sitter, Maurice, began as a lawyer before himself becoming a portraitist who counted Empress Catherine the Great (1729–1796) and Queen Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) among his supporters. Dated 1772, this miniature depicts Maurice in the open collar and simple clothing that must have been intended to announce his new career as an artist.