Self-Portrait

Charles Angrand

1892 · Conté crayon (graphite border on all edges) on white laid paper mounted on board · Robert Lehman Collection

A close friend and follower of Georges Seurat and a founding member of the Neo-Impressionist movement, Angrand was a master of Conté crayon, preferring to work in its limited palette of black, white, and gray. Here Angrand presents himself, not at all as an artist, but as a bourgeois dandy, impeccably dressed and smoking a cigar. Angrand’s technical ability in this self-portrait is stunning. In the words of an early critic, Angrand’s image seems to emerge from a “luminous mist.” Fellow Neo-Impressionist Paul Signac praised Angrand's crayon drawings: "his drawings are masterpieces. It would be impossible to imagine a better use of white and black. These are the most beautiful drawings, poems of light, of fine composition and execution." Many of the Neo-Impressionists were friends, as evidenced by the numerous extant Conté crayon depictions they made of themselves and of one another.

Artist

Charles Angrand

Date

1892

Medium

Conté crayon (graphite border on all edges) on white laid paper mounted on board

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975