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Portrait of the Painter

John La Farge American
1859
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 774
This self-portrait, which La Farge painted in October 1859 at his family's estate in Glen Cove, Long Island, reflects his use of a photograph as a pictorial source; his appreciation of the unmodulated shapes and flattened space of Japanese prints; his reliance on broad tonal masses in the manner of his teachers, Thomas Couture and William Morris Hunt; and his experiments in plein-air landscape painting. The artist portrays himself as a landscapist ready to embark on a painting expedition.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Portrait of the Painter
  • Artist: John La Farge (American, New York 1835–1910 Providence, Rhode Island)
  • Date: 1859
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on wood panel
  • Dimensions: 16 1/16 x 11 1/2 in. (40.8 x 29.2 cm)
  • Credit Line: Samuel D. Lee Fund, 1934
  • Object Number: 34.134
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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Noh Dancer, John La Farge American, Wood engraving on Japan tissue
Noh Dancer
John La Farge
ca. 1886
The Nativity, John La Farge American, Wood engraving on Japan tissue
The Nativity
John La Farge
n.d.
Three Saints (Alternate Study for Chapel Windows, Caldwell House, Newport), John La Farge American, Watercolor and gouache on white wove paper mounted on gray pulpboard, with cut-out "mat" of off-white laid paper, American
Three Saints (Alternate Study for Chapel Windows, Caldwell House, Newport)
John La Farge
ca. 1886–87
Scribner's Monthly Illustrated Magazine Midwinter Number: February 1881
John La Farge
Fernand Harvey Lungren
1881
The Wise Men out of the East, John La Farge American, Wood engraving
The Wise Men out of the East
John La Farge
1868

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