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The lady represented may have been the daughter of the celebrated French artillery general Jean Fabre (or Favre) de la Martellière (1732-1819) who served with distinction in the French service and under Emperor Napoleon I, by whom he was created a count in 1810, and a peer in 1814.The painter, Nicolas Claude Vassal, resident in the rue de Harlay, Paris, was a member of the Academy of Saint Luke, at whose exhibition in 1774 he showed several portraits in enamel, and at the Exposition du Salon Correspondence in 1779 he showed portraits and enamels.The sitter wears a red dress, and a blue mantel decorated with ermine tails. The miniature is in an elaborate silver gilt and enamel frame with floral motifs, topped with a trophy and dove of peace, another dove decorates the bottom of the frame.