Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1865–1875): Art, History and Details

Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1865–1875) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The anonymity of artist and sitter by no means lessens the appeal of this portrait. The distinct lighting from the right suggests the artificial illumination of an interior. Perhaps this portrait of a youthful, dapper man is one of the many that young artists in training typically made in the studios of their fellows. It could be, on the other hand, a self-portrait made by a young man carefully examining himself in a mirror.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of a Young Man
• Date: c. 1865–1875
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: charcoal with stumping, heightened with white chalk
• Dimensions: Sheet: 36.6 x 27.9 cm (14 7/16 x 11 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2008.403

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Rohowsky, Peter S. French Nineteenth Century Drawings, Pastels, Watercolors: Nov. 1977-Feb. 1978. New York: Shepherd Gallery Associates, 1977.
• Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.