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Perfume Case (Etui flaconnier)
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Resting inside this case is a small octagonal crystal flask that would have held perfume. The painted miniatures are decorated with vernis martin, a popular varnish that imitated East Asian true lacquer. These scenes of rural merriment were often miniature reproductions of well-respected artists of the period. The depiction of three children and a dog on the lower portion of the case was drawn from Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s The Happy Family ( L’heureuse fécondité) (1777).
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePerfume Case (Etui flaconnier), c. 1780. France, 18th century. Painted wood with gilt metal mounts, tortoiseshell; overall: 12.6 x 2.6 cm (4 15/16 x 1 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade, 1916.324
