The Precision of Memory To look at the work of Alexandre De Latour is to witness a specific kind of technical discipline that modern art often lacks. He was not merely a painter; he was a Belgian miniaturist who mastered the ability to reconstruct faces with startling accuracy from memory alone. This skill suggests a mind trained for intense observation rather than mere decoration. His career spanned the shifting political landscapes of the French First Republic, Napoleonic France, and the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, yet his focus remained fixed on the small-scale intimacy of the portr…