Edouard Blau

probably 1869

Frédéric Bazille

Associated Names
Frédéric Bazille

Artist, French, 1841 - 1870

Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned man in a suit sits in a high-backed chair, looking slightly to our right in this vertical portrait painting. His eyes and head are both turned slightly to our right, with only one ear visible on our left. His shoulder on our right and the right side of the chair are slightly cut off by the edge of the painting. He has a straight nose, high cheekbones, and pale pink closed lips. His eyes are dark, with small shadows beneath them. His black, wavy hair is parted on our right and cropped short on the sides of his head, with thick, defined waves on top. He has a light brown mustache that extends past the edge of his lips and flips up at the ends and a small, thin goatee. Beneath his chin, the collar of his white shirt is visible. The man wears an open suit jacket with a black vest, which folds slightly just below his chest, revealing a glimpse of his white shirt beneath it in a gap between buttons. The chair is only visible from the man’s shoulders up and ends at his forehead. It has a curved, round top back with a red frame and dark green upholstery. The part of the red frame on the right side of the painting has white and yellow highlights. The background is dark gray with visible brushstrokes. The artist signed and dated the painting at the top left, “F. Bazille. 1866.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 59.5 x 43.2 cm (23 7/16 x 17 in.)
    framed: 69.5 x 53 x 5.1 cm (27 3/8 x 20 7/8 x 2 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1963.10.81

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Leicester Galleries, London); sold 20 April 1927 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.[1]
[1]Date and source of Dale's acquisition from his papers in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

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

2016

  • Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) and The Birth of Impressionism, Musée Fabre, Montpelier; Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2016-2017, no. 55 (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1929

  • Dale, Maud. Before Manet to Modigliani from the Chester Dale Collection. New York, 1929: no. 37, repro.

1953

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 32, repro.

1965

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 47, repro.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 10.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 3, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 18, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 503, no. 749, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 37, repro.

1992

  • Daulte, François. Frédéric Bazille et les débuts de l'impressionisme. Paris, 1992: no. 21, repro.

1993

  • Bajou, Valérie. Frédéric Bazille 1841-1870. Aix-en-Provence, 1993:96,105,140, repro. 120

1995

  • Schulman, Michel. Frédéric Bazille 1841-1870: Catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1995: no. 57, repro.

1998

  • Pitman, Dianne W. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998: 77, 80, repro. no. 45.

Inscriptions

upper left: F. Bazille. 1866.

Wikidata ID

Q20188677

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