Frits Lugt (1884–1970) had a passion for miniatures that began early on in his life. He
demonstrated it in the small but ardent Le portrait-miniature of 1917, the year in which he
bought the first portrait miniature for his collection. Since then it has been constantly
enriched, and now numbers more than 100 works by artists from Great Britain, the Low
Countries, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Switzerland, covering the period from
the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
Thanks to the expertise of specialist Karen Schaffers-Bodenhausen, who has studied
the growing collection in recent years with great dedication and patience, we now have
this first catalogue of the portrait miniatures in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation
Custodia, Paris.
In addition to a foreword by director Ger Luijten, the first volume contains
detailed descriptions and exhaustive analyses of the portraits, their attributions, and
identifications of the sitters. The author also examines the techniques employed
and sets out to establish a date for each portrait. The volume closes with a table of
concordance, a detailed index of proper names and a comprehensive bibliography.
Comparative illustrations are incorporated in the descriptions. The second volume has
colour plates of all the works in the collection, almost all of them full size, and concludes
with reproductions of the backs of the miniatures if they provide additional supporting
information.