Leconte de Lisle

c. 1840/1841

Jean-François Millet

Artist, French, 1814 - 1875

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned, clean-shaven man stands looking off to our right in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is squared to us, but he turns his head to the right and looks down in that direction with brown eyes. He has a wide-bridged nose, full lips, and a rounded chin. His cheekbone-length brown hair is parted to the side and brushed straight over his ears. His tomato-red cravat is tied high around his neck over a white shirt and an olive-green vest patterned with a gold-colored grid. His navy-blue coat falls almost to his knees, and he wears brown pants. The stone ledge comes almost to hip height, and the man leans onto his left hand, to our right, braced near its front ledge. The ledge and background are flint gray deepening to iron gray along the bottom edge. The artist signed the painting as if his name was carved into the front face of the ledge: “F. MILLET.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 117 x 81 cm (46 1/16 x 31 7/8 in.)
    framed: 135.9 x 99.7 cm (53 1/2 x 39 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.42

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Henri Rouart [1833-1912], Paris; by inheritance to his son, Ernest Rouart [1874-1942], Paris;[1] (Galerie André Weil, Paris); sold March 1950 to Chester Dale [1883-1962]; bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1] The picture is not mentioned in accounts of the Henri Rouart collection published on the occasion of the owner's death in 1912 (see Henri Frantz, "The Rouart Collection, III, the Works of Millet," International Studio 50, no. 198 (August 1913): 97-107). Inherited by Henri's son Ernest, it was consigned at the latter's death to the Galerie André Weil in Paris from which Chester Dale bought it in 1950. Notes from this dealer, in NGA curatorial files, assert that the portrait was "painted at Rennes, France" and had been in the Rouart family for "nearly half a century. The family does not know exactly where it comes from before; but probably was bought like most pictures of this collection from some leading Paris Galleries of that period such as: George Petit or others" (letter from Andée Weil dated 14 April 1950).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1979

  • French Romanticism, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1954

  • Walker, John. "Portrait of Leconte de Lisle." Ladies Home Journal (October 1954): 52, repro.

1963

  • MacNeil, Neil. "Chester Dale: Collector." McCalls (November 1963): 124, repro.

1965

  • "The Chester Dale Bequest." Apollo (July 1965): 70, repro.

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 45, repro.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 90.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred. "How Great is the Dale Collection?" Art News 64 (May 1965):40-43, 51-53, repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 79, repro.

1971

  • Lepoittevin, Lucien. Jean François Millet. 2 vols. Paris, 1971: I:69, repro.

1972

  • DiOrio, Dorothy M. Leconte de Lisle: A Hundred and Twenty Years of Criticism (1850-1970). University of Mississippi, 1972: 232, no. 684, repro. as frontispiece.

1973

  • Lepoittevin, Lucien. Jean-François Millet, L'ambiguité de l'image, essay. Paris, 1973: 53.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 234, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 438, no. 628, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 269, repro.

2000

  • Eitner, Lorenz. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 314-318, color repro.

Inscriptions

on balustrade at lower right, in feigned glyptic capitals: F. MILLET.

Wikidata ID

Q20186732

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