Self-Portrait Gm-25609101

François Bonvin (French, 1817–1887) Somberly dressed in jacket and cravat, François Bonvin depicts himself with a serious and intense expression matched by the composition's dark tonality. Bonvin's grainy, dense application of black dramatically contrasts with the bare white paper which illuminates much of his face. This spotlight effect focuses our attention on Bonvin's self-assured gaze and his unsparing self-introspection in black chalk.

When Bonvin drew this self-portrait he was about thirty years old. His artistic career was gaining momentum after his first successful exhibition in 1844. Like many Realist artists, Bonvin looked to Dutch artists of the 1600s, whose works could be viewed at the Louvre, for his models. Rembrandt was especially important to Bonvin and this drawing recalls Rembrandt's many dramatic, probing self-portraits. Around this time, Bonvin and Gustave Courbet had struck up a friendship and Bonvin was undoubtedly influenced by Courbet's commitment to realism in art, his black chalk drawings, and memorable self-portraits.

Our Cards are all printed on 100% cotton tree-free archival paper. All Cards include a recycled kraft envelope in a protective sleeve individually hand wrapped for you. Each card is printed one at a time and hand bound here in Lugano, Switzerland. We ship all over the world via SwissPost. Please allow 5-9 business days for us to make them and 5-7 business days for transit. Art Prints are printed on heavy matte finish German art paper using the finest Canon archival inks. Frame is black natural with a white mattboard and Acrylite glazing.

Wall Murals are printed on 42" matte finish, self-adhesive Kodak PhotoText fabric panels that combine and mount easily on a non textured wall surface. We can custom make to any size, just ask.

Stretched Canvas is stretched by hand over 1.5" thick pine bars and printed on cotton poly matte finish canvas. Each canvas is hand coated with Hahnemuhle UV/Archive coating, these are Swiss quality best in industry canvases.

All our images are digitized from the original negative, printed and assembled in Switzerland to museum standards by our master printer.

All of our products are popular and custom made by hand to order, please allow 2-4 weeks to make them and 1-2 weeks for shipment anywhere in the world.

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Artwork in this collection is from The J. Paul Getty Museum. Reproduction rights are reserved by the copyright owner and used under license by Archivea GmbH.