Les hommes, toujours - a selection of male portraits

 

Autoritratto, by Mario Sironi, 1904.

The artist Yozif Sutter, by Johann Friedrich Overbeck, 1812.

Count Benedykt Henryk Tyszkiewicz, by Kazimierz Pochwalski, 1889.

Hugues Desnotz, by Nicolas de Largillière, 1704.

Midshipman Robert Grant, by George Watson, circa 1820.

Portrait of a Man in White, French School, 1574.

Alexander Pope, attributed to Jonathan Richardson, circa 1736.

Self-portrait, by Eilnar IImoni, 1932. (I don't believe the date given this is correct; Ilmoni was 53 in 1932.)

Self-portrait, by Ford Madox Brown, circa 1844.

Unknown sitter, unknown artist, circa 1795.

Portrait of a Man Holding a Volume of Petrarch, by Jean Clouet, circa 1530.

The sculptor Tobias Weiss, by Wilhelm Leibl, 1866.

Jean-Charles-Auguste Simon, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1806.

Self-portrait, by Adriaen van de Venne, 1618.

A. G. Webster, by George Clausen, 1881.

Portrait of a Noble from Eastern Europe, Flemish School, circa late seventeenth century.

Portrait of a Man, presumed to be Hassan, the "Keeper of the Giraffe" for Charles X of France, by Claude-Marie Dubufe, 1826-7.

Young Man Distracted - Study, by Jean Raymond Hippolyte Lazerges, 1850.

Józef Ciechoński, by Jan Matejko, 1873.

Unknown sitter, by Hans Johan Frederik Berg, circa 1840s-50s.

Filippo di Borbone, duca di Parma, Piacenza e Guastalla, by Laurent Pécheux, circa 1765. (Father of the below.)

Ferdinando di Borbone, duca di Parma, Piacenza e Guastalla, by Laurent Pécheux, 1765. (Son and successor of the above.)

Paul-Marie Duval, by Edgar Maxence, 1930.

Wilhelm Marstrand at his easel in Eckersberg's studio, by Christen Købke, circa 1829.

The Waagepetersen Family, by Wilhelm Bendz, 1830

Wilhelm Bendz - only two years away from his premature death - has portrayed the merchant Waagepetersen and his wife Albertine with their two young children in what looks to be the husband's study. Christian Waagepetersen (6 September 1787, Copenhagen - 23 November 1840, Copenhagen) was a successful Danish wine merchant, supplier to the royal court, and an important patron of the arts. The couple's home at Store Strandstræde in Copenhagen was a gathering place of some of the era's most important musicians, many of whom Waagepetersen helped support. His love of music was so profound that he named three of his sons Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.

The children look rather stiff and doll-like, but Bendz's portrait of Waagepetersen is vivid, what could be called a "speaking likeness".

The artist's portrayal of Albertine Waagepetersen can't have been terribly flattering....

The light streaming in from the open window - illuminating, reflecting - is wonderful.

I love how the light reflects the gold-leaf onto the walls, and I think the ribbon-wrapped picture cords and their rosettes are charming.

I believe that the two oval portraits are of  Waagepetersen's parents. Above them, Napoléon...?

Above the jumble of books on the mahogany desk is a portrait of the Danish king, Frederik VI. In the glass cylinder, a little green frog.

I love the rather grumpy looking dog, lying on a cushion at his master's feet.

***

 "Familien Waagepetersen", by Wilhelm Marstrand,1836.

Mrs. Waagepetersen - in a more flattering portrait, certainly - is, six years later, portrayed by Marstrand with three additional children and what appear to be a nurse (in traditional costume) and a governess. Her husband, not included in the group, would die four years later.

Wilhelm Marstrand (24 December 1810, Copenhagen – 25 March 1873, Copenhagen), painter and illustrator, one of the important artists of the "Golden Age of Danish Painting". Like Bendz, he was, early in his career, a protégé of Christian Waagepetersen and was his favored artist after the death of Bendz.