Self-Portrait
c. 1780
Medium
red and black chalks, and pastel with stumping on gray-brown laid paper
Dimensions
overall: 51 x 37.5 cm (20 1/16 x 14 3/4 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Woodner Collection
Accession Number
1998.17.4
Art Historical Context
Claude Hoin's *Self-Portrait* (c. 1780) captures the artist in a moment of introspective intensity, rendered with masterful finesse on gray-brown laid paper. Measuring 51 x 37.5 cm, this drawing exemplifies late 18th-century French draughtsmanship during the waning years of the Ancien Régime, a time when artists like Hoin blended Rococo elegance with emerging Neoclassical restraint. As a lesser-known but skilled pastellist and portraitist, Hoin used this intimate self-study to showcase his technical prowess, inviting viewers to ponder the personal gaze behind the public facade. The medium—red...