1868
Huile sur panneau
40 x 31 cm - 15 3/4 x 12 3/16 in.
Montpellier, Musée Fabre, France - Inv. 45. 8.1
Dernière mise à jour : 2022-03-29 07:01:20
Référence : MSb-47
Famille de l'artiste, Montpellier - Frédéric Bazille, neveu de l'artiste - Don au musée Fabre en 1945.
Paris, galerie Wildenstein, 1950, n° 42 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1959, n° 30 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, Eugène Castelnau, n° 57 - Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 36, repr. p. 84 - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1979, Le portrait, n° 57, repr. p. 113 - Lausanne, musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, 1985, n° 25, repr. p. 107 - - Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, n° 43, repr. p. 138 et fig. 2, repr. p. 18 - Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 111, repr. p. 25 [Les références sont du catalogue en français].
Sarraute, Catalogue de l'œuvre de Frédéric Bazille, 1948, n° 30, p. 72 - Daulte, Arts, 9 juin 1950 - Claparède, Réforme, 24 juin 1950 - Daulte, Bazille et son temps, 1952, n° 37, pp. 145-146, 181 (repr.) [Thèse sous la direction de Gaston Poulain] - Marandel, Catalogue exp. The Art Institute of Chicago, 1978, n° 36, repr. p. 84 - Heym, Suddeutsche Malerei aus Hochland, 1979, n° 25 (repr.) - Montpellier, musée Fabre, 1979, Les portraits à travers les collections du musée Fabre, n° 57, repr. p. 113 - Bonafoux, Les Impressionnistes. Portraits et Confidences, 1986, repr. p. 84 - Daulte, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1992, n° 40, pp. 91, 138, 141, 170-171 [Réédition de 1952 avec photos en couleur] - Michel, Bazille, 1992, p. 279 - Rouand, Catalogue exp. Montpellier, New York, 1992-1993, fig. 2, repr. p. 18 et Jourdan, 1992-1993, n° 43, repr. p. 138 - Bajou, Frédéric Bazille, 1993, p. 76 (repr.) - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné, 1995, n° 47, repr. p. 186 - Hilaire, Jones, Perrin, Catalogue exp. Montpellier, Paris, Washington, 2016-2017, cat. 111, p. 276, repr. p. 25 [Les références sont du catalogue en français] - Schulman, Frédéric Bazille : Catalogue raisonné numérique, 2022, n° 47.
Le catalogue de l'exposition 2016-2017, cat. 111, repr. p. 25, présente ce portrait comme une œuvre de Claude Monet.
Contrarily to the self-portraits in which Bazille depicted himself practically from the front - Frédéric Bazille with a Palette, Self-Portrait with a Detachable Collar and Self-Portrait in Shirt Sleeves - he is seen here in profile, with a prominent beard and messy hair. In no portrait does he have that hair swept forward as he wears it here. Bazille, whose bust occupies much of the painting, stands out in the frame of a window where we see a meadow with some houses and a barely sketched tree.
This self-portrait, which is assumed to have been done at Saint-Sauveur because of the landscape in the background, would be of relatively minor interest were it not for the technique and palette used. The stroke is indeed of a rare robustness on the painter. The technique of the top of the hair and the sleeves of the white shirt is one of the most spirited that Bazille ever used. The strokes are not only long and thick, but also jerky and angular, as can be seen, all things considered, in his Self-Portrait with a Detachable Collar. In the second plane, the stroke becomes lighter, as if Bazille had wanted a break between the two planes.
To represent himself, he took dark browns, put ochres and some red strokes in the hair. The light falls on his face but it also brights part of his shirt. In contrast, pale greens, browns, and muted pinks dominate the landscape.
Claparède admires in this painting "the boldness of the first impastos, the vigorous frankness of the touch" [Claparède", Bazille in Montpellier, Réforme, June 24, 1950, p. 5]. Here Bazille starts an experiment in accentuating form as he would later do, in an entirely different way, in Frédéric Bazille in Shirt Sleeves. The attempt is entirely new; its result is a success.
This painting has recently been attributed to Claude Monet by the Fabre Museum.
