Sunday, May 17, 2015

Des portraits d'hommes, comme toujours


William B. Ogden, by Anders Zorn, 1895.
Jacques-Joseph de Cathelineau, by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, circa 1822.
Portrait of the Painter, by John La Farge, 1859.
John Randolph, by Gilbert Stuart, 1804/5.
Gustav Pongratz, by Vlaho Bukovac, 1893.
William Colyear, Viscount Milsington, Later 3rd Earl of Portmore, by Allan Ramsay, 1764.
 Stanisław Czachórski (brother of the artist in costume), by Władysław Czachórski, 1889.
Study of a Shipyard Worker (Head of Gondolier), Dominik Skutecký, 1903.
Sir William Edward Parry, by Samuel Drummond, circa 1820.
 Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, by Osip Braz, 1922.
Harry Melvill, by Jacques-Émile Blanche, 1904.
Portrait of a Gentleman, by Alfred Loudet, 1891.
Count Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey, by Baron Gerard, 1809.
Portrait of the Artist's Brother, by Arthur Hacker, 1882.
Count Alexander Alexeevich Bobrinsky, by Franz Krüger, 1850.
Arthur Atherley as an Etonian, by Thomas Lawrence, 1791.
James Hazen Hyde, by Théobald Chartran, 1901.
Otto Vautier, Ernest Bieler, 1892.
Portrait of a Young Man, by Richard Dadd, 1853.
Adjutant General Peter P. Gesse, by Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky, 1904.
Branko Radulović, by Vlaho Bukovac, 1910.
Honoré-Charles Baston, comte de Lariboisière, by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1815.
Prince Konstantin Alexandrovich Gorchakov, by Alexandre Cabanel, 1868.
Head of an Italian Model, by Frederic, Lord Leighton, circa 1855.







5 comments:

  1. I heartily approve your taste in gentlemen. Not that you needed my approval.

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  2. Fascinating. Gilbert Stuart's benign portrait of John Randolph belies the subject's personality (or perhaps reveals another side). A long-serving Congressman from Viriginia, Randolph was bellicose and fiery, a noted orator and fierce political opponant, he was a man of contradictions. A slave owner who opposed slavery (and tried to find a method to end it) and a patrician who fought for education for all. A colorful dresser and noted eccentric, he routinely bought his hunting dogs into the House Chamber in Washington. He suffered from TB, using opium in later life to fight increasing pain.

    I love Theobold Chartran's striking portrait of James Hazen Hyde, another colorful character. A renowned socialite and financial wizard, and life-long Francophile, the portrait captures his magnetic, somewhat enigmatic personality. One is drawn in; one wants to learn more about this man.

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    1. You pinpointed two of the most interesting fellows portrayed in the post, certainly. Two I'd thought about giving their own posts, but have been too busy/lazy. John Randolph is particularly interesting. Either as a cause of a genetic problem or an early side effect of the then-latent TB, he seems never to have gone through puberty and continued into adulthood with a distinctly soprano voice.

      The Stuart portrait of Randolph I find extremely beautiful, while Chartran's Hyde, while also beautiful, I think rather creepy. ; )

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    2. Indeed! Hyde doesn't look like someone one would want to be left alone with! Yet, it's oddly compelling.

      Chartran painted the official White House portrait of Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt (it's considerably brighter and lighter than the Hyde portrait). The story goes that he painted Teddy Roosevelt's portrait also, but Roosevelt hated it (his family described the picture as "the mewing cat"), shunted it out of sight, and eventually had it destroyed. It was supplanted by a more forceful portrait by John Singer Sargent.

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    3. Yes, you can find an image of the offending portrait online; it - is - rather awful. But I don't think the Sargent is that much of an improvement, and certainly not one of Sargent's better works. The Chartran of Mrs. is charming enough. He also did a portrait of daughter Alice.

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