Self-Portrait

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux|Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

ca. 1865 · Red and brown chalk, heightened with white on tan paper · Drawings and Prints

Carpeaux was one of the rare sculptors who also excelled as a painter and draftsman, comfortably using a broad range of media to pursue his artistic vision. Here, he uses red, brown, and white chalks to produce a moody and masterfully modelled self-portrait. Carpeaux, like Courbet, was fascinated with his own image, creating at least 14 painted self-portraits and six on paper. This one is among his most haunting. Lit from above, with the artist’s features cast in shadow, it evokes Carpeaux’s psychological complexity, as both a genius and as an individual suffering from various maladies.

Artist

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux|Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

Date

ca. 1865

Medium

Red and brown chalk, heightened with white on tan paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation Gift, in honor of James Draper, 2014