Self-portrait (recto); Study for a self-portrait (verso)

ca. 1870

Not on view

This sheet contains two studies for Bracquemond’s early self-portrait painting (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen): on one side, a faint graphite sketch, and on the other a more finished version, accentuated with ink wash and white highlights. She presents herself in a direct, frontal view with an intent and serious gaze. 1870—the year in which she executed this work—was a personally pivotal one for the artist, in which she gave birth to her only child, Pierre. She had married the painter-printmaker Félix Bracquemond the previous year, after meeting him in the galleries of the Louvre. Initially supportive of her artistic pursuits, he eventually discouraged her to the extent that she abandoned her professional life as an artist in the 1890s.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Provenance

Title: Self-portrait (recto); Study for a self-portrait (verso)
Artist: Marie Bracquemond (French, Argenton-en-Landunvez 1841–1916 Sèvres)
Date: ca. 1870
Medium: Charcoal, brown wash, and white gouache (recto); graphite (verso)
Dimensions: Sheet: 21 1/4 × 14 15/16 in. (54 × 38 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Purchase, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2024
Object Number: 2024.622a, b
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Marie Bracquemond

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Portrait of Mlle Quivoron, Marie Bracquemond French, Etching, drypoint — Portrait of Mlle Quivoron
Marie Bracquemond
1860–1914

Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French — Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century

The Artist's Portfolio, Pont Aven, Paul Gauguin French, Two inside covers decorated in watercolor and gouache over charcoal with graphite on heavy gray wove (blotting) paper sewn to leather; leather binding inscribed in pen and ink with additions in watercolor; multicolored silk ribbons stitched into binding. — The Artist's Portfolio, Pont Aven
Paul Gauguin
1894

Lunch in the Countryside, Marie Bracquemond French, Graphite, charcoal, and red chalk — Lunch in the Countryside
Marie Bracquemond
1881

Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, Lithograph printed in four colors; three sheets of wove paper — Moulin Rouge: La Goulue
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Printer Affiches Américaines, Charles Lévy
1891

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