Léon Maître

French

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Shown from the lap up, a bearded, pale-skinned man wearing a suit faces our left in profile in this vertical portrait painting. The man looks down at an open book on his lap. He has a prominent, straight nose, high cheekbones, and the corner of his mouth turns down. His gleaming black hair is cut short and parted along the left, and his beard is trimmed. He wears a black vest and suit jacket, a black ascot polka dotted with white, and his white shirt is visible at the high collar and cuffs. A blue flower is threaded through his lapel, and he wears chestnut-brown pants. He holds one side of the book open with his left hand, closer to us, and holds a partially smoked, thin cigar with this other. The wood-framed chair has a curved, round-topped back. The background deepens from peanut-brown along the right to almost black near the top left corner. The artist signed and dated the painting at the top left, “F. Bazille. 1869.”
Frédéric Bazille, Edmond Maître, 1869, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.2

Edmond Maître

Frédéric Bazille · 1869 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1985.64.2