Repeater watch
Pierre Michaud
ca. 1755 · Gold, enamel · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
The scene on the back of the watchcase is copied in miniature from a genre painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725–1805) titled The Father Reading the Bible to His Children, which was exhibited to great acclaim in the 1755 Paris Salon. The watchmaker, originally from Orléans, became a master in Geneva in 1771. He seems to have had an earlier career in Paris, as this watch would indicate, but there are no traces of him in the records of the time. He is likely to have been a Protestant, as the choice of the scene on the enameled case would suggest, and his religion would have prevented his becoming a master watchmaker in Paris.
- Artist
- Pierre Michaud
- Date
- ca. 1755
- Medium
- Gold, enamel
- Culture
- French, Paris
- Department
- European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
- Credit line
- Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
