Portrait of a Man

Louis Lafitte

1793 · Conté crayon heightened with white chalk · Drawings and Prints

Lafitte won first place in the prix de Rome of 1791 and was awarded study as a pensionnaire at the Académie de France in Rome. It was in Rome that he created this psychologically penetrating portrait of a stylish and pensive young man against a dramatically lit sky. The proto-Romantic sensibility of the sheet is emphasized by the composition, which sets the subject, perhaps a fellow artist, against a distant landscape with a low horizon line. Later that year, hostilities against the French caused Lafitte to seek refuge in Florence.

Artist

Louis Lafitte

Date

1793

Medium

Conté crayon heightened with white chalk

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Guy Wildenstein Gift, 2012