The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Self-Portrait at Easel

Self-Portrait at Easel

1897
(French, 1854–1929)
France
conté crayon with charcoal on laid paper
Sheet: 62 x 47.7 cm (24 7/16 x 18 3/4 in.)
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2021.6
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Hippolyte Petitjean met the artist Georges Seurat in 1884, and the two worked closely on a distinctive style of drawing using waxy black conté crayon.

Description

In this self-portrait, Hippolyte Petitjean depicted himself standing before an easel while gazing directly at the viewer. The drawing is one of five representations of himself that the artist created late in his career based on his admiration for Rembrandt van Rijn. Petitjean was deeply influenced by the anarchist writer Charles-Albert, who argued for the utopian potential of artmaking, suggesting that the work was meant as a broader statement about the place of the artist within contemporary society.
  • 1964
    (sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, June 26, 1964)
    presumably 1964-1998
    Oscar Ghez [1905-1998], Geneva, Switzerland
    1998-?
    by descent to Claude Ghez, New York, NY
    2015-2019
    Petit Palais, Geneva Switzerland (Ghez Collection)
    2019
    (sale, Ader, Paris, November 8, 2019, no. 105, sold to De Bayser, Paris)
    2019-2021
    (De Bayser, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    2021-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • De Vallotton à Desnos. Exh. cat. Vevey: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Vevey, 1965. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 88.
    Les Indépendants à la Belle Époque: Ni jury ni récompenses. Exh. cat. Paris: Grand Palais, 1966. Reproduced: n.p.
    Sutter, Jean. The Neo-Impressionists. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society Ltd., 1970. Reproduced: p. 143
    Lapalus, Marie. Hippolyte Petitjean, 1854–1929. Exh. cat. Mâcon: Musées de Mâcon, 2015. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 49
  • Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-April 30, 2023).
    Hippolyte Petitjean, 1854–1929. Musées de Mâcon (October 10, 2015–January 31, 2016).
    Les Indépendants à la Belle Époque: Ni jury ni récompenses. Grand Palais, Paris (March 25–April 17, 1966).
    De Vallotton à Desnos. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Vevey (July 24–October 3, 1965).
  • {{cite web|title=Self-Portrait at Easel|url=false|author=Hippolyte Petitjean|year=1897|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2021.6