Self-Portrait (c. 1812): Art, History and Details

Self-Portrait (c. 1812) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Joseph Paelinck (Belgian, 1781–1839).

The work and its context

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

Born in a small village in Belgium, Paelinck attended a local drawing academy as a youth. His skill earned him a scholarship to study in Paris where he worked with Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), the leading French neoclassical master and official court painter of Napoleon I. Paelinck later moved to Rome to study ancient art firsthand and to participate in the city's lively international art scene. Paelinck's attire shows him as a dandy, wearing fashionable, subtly colored clothes. Over his black suit, he wears a box-coat—a garment having a wide, velvet collar originally associated with coachmen but popular among artists in Rome during the early 19th century. The coat demonstrates Paelinck's skill at depicting textures. Likewise, the simplicity of his desk and chair—based on ancient Greek and Roman models—reflects the highest fashion of the time.

Object facts

• Title: Self-Portrait
• Date: c. 1812
• Creator attribution: Joseph Paelinck (Belgian, 1781–1839)
• Culture: Belgium, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 114 x 94.5 x 7.5 cm (44 7/8 x 37 3/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 89 x 69.3 cm (35 1/16 x 27 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1937.575

Collection credit

Gift of Elisabeth Ireland and Robert Livingston Ireland Jr., in memory of their mother, Mrs. Perry W. Harvey

Further reading listed by the museum

• Francis, Henry. "'Portrait of a Man' by Ingres." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art no 25, no. 7 (July 1938): 135-137
• Francis, Henry. "Loans to Important Exhibitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 7 (July 1939): 123
• Milliken, William. "Silver Jubilee Exhibition." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no.6 (June 1941): 88-108

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.