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Thomas Hovenden (1840–1895)
Self-Portrait of the Artist in His Studio, 1875
Oil on canvas; 26 5/8 x 17 5/8 in. (67.6 x 44.8 cm)
Yale University Art Gallery, Mabel Brady Garvan and John H. Niemeyer Funds
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Hovenden lived in France from 1874 to 1880, studying under Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-Arts for a year and then joining the art colony at Pont-Aven in Brittany. When he painted this unusual self-portrait in Paris, he parodied the persona of an artistic bohemian. He showed himself disheveled, his red cravat askew and the sole of his boot gaping open. He slouches in front of his canvas, violin in hand, cigarette in mouth, and French novels on the shelves behind him. Like the starving heroes of the writer Henri Murger, he has given up creature comforts and social conventions to devote himself to art.
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