(American/Virginia, 1770-1852)

Double Sided Locket with Portrait of Louis Hue Girardin (1771-1825), 1807, engraving on paper, sight 1-3/4 x 1-1/2 in.; verso, Marriage Portrait of Couple Walking, inscribed lower left "Love & Hymen. P.C n LG", (Hymen is the ancient Greek god of marriage ceremonies) applied hair at bottom edge, watercolor on ivory, sight 1-7/8 x 1-5/8 in.; gilt bezel frame, 2-5/8 x 1-7/8 x 1/4 in.

Provenance: Private Collection, Richmond, Virginia

Literature: Ellen G. Miles, Saint Memin and The Neoclassical Profile Portrait in America (1994), p. 309, no. 361.

Wayne Barrett, "Monsieur Girardin's Prescient Little Magazine", The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, (Winter 1991-92), p. 28.

Note: Born Louis Francois Picot, he was a political figure in France who supported the ideas of the French Revolution. When he was going to be executed by guillotine for his beliefs, he escaped to the United States and changed his last name to his mother's maiden name, Girardin. He became a college professor and writer, and eventually settled in Virginia with his wife. The monograms of PC and LG could be the initials of Louis Hue Girardin and his wife, Polly Cole.

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