About this artwork
Over a century after its creation, the French novelist Marcel Proust said of Jean-Siméon Chardin’s audacious self-portrait, “This old oddity is so intelligent, so crazy … above all, so much of an artist.” In a fitting finale to a long, successful career as a painter of still lifes and genre scenes, Chardin turned in his last decade to a new medium, pastel, and to a new subject matter, portraits (primarily self-portraits). Eye problems arising from lead-based oil paint poisoning were the partial cause of this dramatic change. Of his thirteen extant pastel self-portraits, the most famous are versions of the example seen here, with the casually dressed, aging artist in his studio. A virtuoso colorist, the septuagenarian here revealed a joyously free stroke and palette. Nonetheless, the construction of the figure is solid and rigorous, adding to his powerful presence. This composition was created at the same time as a portrait of the artist’s wife for the 1775 Salon (Musée du Louvre, Paris). A year later, Chardin—with greater daring—replicated the pair. These later portraits were separated for almost two hundred years, until they were reunited in the collection of the Art Institute.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Prints and Drawings
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Artist
- Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin
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Title
- Self-Portrait with a Visor
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Place
- France (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- 1771–1781
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Medium
- Pastel on blue laid paper, mounted on canvas
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Dimensions
- 45.7 × 37.4 cm (18 × 14 3/4 in.)
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Credit Line
- Clarence Buckingham Collection and the Harold Joachim Memorial Fund
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Reference Number
- 1984.61
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/102131/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
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