3-044-027 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Self-Portrait, 1846-1847. Additional Info: Somberly dressed in jacket and cravat, François Bonvin depicts himself with a serious and intense expression matched by the composition's dark tonality. When Bonvin drew this self-portrait he was about thirty years old. His artistic career was gaining momentum after his first successful exhibition in 1844. Like many Realist artists, Bonvin looked to Dutch artists of the 1600s, whose works could be viewed at the Louvre, for his models. Rembrandt was especially important to Bonvin and this drawing recalls Rembrandt's many dramatic, probing self-portraits.