Auto-Portrait (Self Portrait)

Fantin-Latour was only twenty-five years old when he painted this self portrait and it constitutes one of his last in the series of images that had occupied his oeuvre from 1854. In the present painting we can see a foreshadowing of the precise draftsmanship and powers of keen observation that characterize his later still lifes. Fantin was an admirer of Rembrandt, emulating the somber harmonies of his palette and the psychological intimacy of his subjects in his own likeness. In Auto-Portrait he presents an solitary image of "introverted romanticism" (D. Druick, Fantin-Latour, A Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., op.cit., 1983, p. 72). As with his Portrait of Alphonse Legros (lot ), the pose and lighting of the self-portrait imbue it with drama. When Fantin was asked years later why he had focused on the self-portrait as subject for his paintings during this period he replied, "(the artist) is a model who is always ready, offering all the advantages; he comes on time, he does what you tell him, and you already know him before you start to paint him" (Quoted in Exposition de l'oevure de Fantin-Latour, exh. cat., op. cit., 1906, Paris, p. 17).

Galerie Brame & Lorenceau will will include this painting in their forthcoming Fantin-Latour catalogue raisonn.