French school of the late 1580s, entourage of MARIN LE BOURGEOYS (Lisieux, mid-16th century - 1634). Portrait of a blond man, goatee trimmed into a goatee and moustache with subtly raised tips, in a gray pourpoint with a simple white collar, bust to the right against a bluish background in a rectangular simulated gilded frame. Miniature on vellum rect. 7.3 x 5.7 cm Old restorations, scratches, stains and rubbing, small fastening holes around the edges; unframed. Renaissance portraits of this type are very rare. It is close to the work of Marin le Bourgeoys, miniaturist to King Henri IV, whose few known miniatures, in particular the Chartrier de la famille Le Gentil (BnF), are however treated with less finesse than here. Despite the wear and tear of time, this small portrait, with its remarkably well-executed modelling of the flesh, delivers a sincere and touching memory of a man dressed simply as was fashionable at the court of Henri III in the late 1580s, in the spirit of sobriety advocated by the Counter-Reformation.