This May, Lyon & Turnbull present for sale a unique collection of portrait miniatures by the French born Rochard brothers Simon and François, that offers a compelling insight into society miniature portraiture in the first half of the 19th century.
Simon Jacques Rochard (1788-1872) was born in Paris to René Rochard and Marie Madeleine Talon, just as the terrors of the Revolution and the fall of the ancien régime reshaped France. He showed early talent and, after his father died, helped support his mother and eleven siblings by drawing crayon portraits. He then studied under Louis-François Aubry, entering the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1813. He was also taught miniature painting from Emilie Bounieu (daughter of Michel Honoré Bounieu) and Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin. At only twenty, he painted a portrait of the Empress Joséphine for Napoleon and later other portraits of the imperial family.
After Napoleon's return from Elba in 1815, at the age of 27, he was drafted into the army but deserted and went to Brussels. There he received commissions to paint miniatures including at least one commission for the King of Spain of the Duke of Wellington, shortly before the battle of Waterloo opposing Napoleon. Shortly after this English victory he moved to London, secured with introductions from the Duke of Richmond and Lady Caroline Lamb. He soon became very popular, painting numerous miniatures of other officers, society members, which built up a distinguished aristocratic clientele. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, the Society of British Artists, and at the New Watercolour Society from 1816 to 1845.
