Self-Portrait
ca. 1858
Medium
Oil on canvas, laid down on canvas
Dimensions
Overall 10 3/8 x 8 3/8 in. (26.4 x 21.3 cm); original canvas 10 x 7 7/8 in. (25.4 x 20 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1995
Accession Number
1995.91
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Self-Portrait by Henri Fantin-Latour, ca. 1858. Created in Oil on canvas, laid down on canvas, this work exemplifies the artistic practices and cultural values of its period. The piece reflects the technical skills and aesthetic sensibilities characteristic of its historical and cultural context. As part of the European Paintings collection, it contributes to our understanding of artistic development and cultural expression. The work serves as both an aesthetic object and a historical document, ...
Art Historical Context
Henri Fantin-Latour's *Self-Portrait* (ca. 1858) offers an intimate glimpse into the young French artist's early career. Painted in oil on canvas—at a compact 10 x 7 7/8 inches originally—this modest-scale work captures Fantin-Latour at age 22, during a formative period in mid-19th-century Paris The canvas has been laid down on another for preservation, a common technique to stabilize aging supports, highlighting the careful stewardship of works like this in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's European Paintings collection. As a self-portrait, it exemplifies the era's fascination with personal introspection amid the Realist movement, where artists like Fantin-Latour prioritized truthful depiction over idealization. His precise brushwork and subtle modeling reflect technical mastery honed in ateliers influenced by Ingres and Courbet. Acquired through the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection in 1995, this piece serves as a historical document, illuminating the materials and methods of Second Empire France while inviting viewers to ponder the artist's emerging voice in a vibrant cultural milieu.
About the Artist
Henri Fantin-Latour · 1836–1904
Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour was born on January 14, 1836, in Grenoble, France, to portrait painter Théodore Fantin-Latour, who gave him his earliest drawing lessons. The family relocated to Paris in 1841, where in 1850, at age 14, he enrolled in the École de Dessin, studying under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, whose innovative memory-based method of drawing from observation profoundly ...