Oval, on card in a pierced gilt-metal frame decorated with leaves, the base with ribbon inscribed with the sitter’s name and the reverse engraved ‘By Mr Macpherson,/at Florence.’
Pasquale de Paoli, was a Corsican patriot and statesman, who was at the forefront of the fight to end centuries of Genoese rule over Corsica and later, in the resistance to the French invasion in 1768.
Giuseppe Macpherson (1726-1780) was born in Florence, the son of a footman to the 2nd Duke of Grafton.
He was a pupil of Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787), and painted miniatures and portraits, particularly in enamel in England, France and Germany before finally settling in the city of his birth.
