GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Standing before his easel holding brushes and his palette, the artist Paul Carpentier confidently gazes outward. His wife, Adèle, and eleven-year-old daughter, Clémence, lovingly admire the very painting in which they are posing. The red fabric of Adèle’s gown is just visible on the right edge of the painting underway. Though a triple portrait, in many ways the painting’s true subject is Carpentier’s professional status. Set in his studio, the painting showcases the tools of the educated painter’s trade: easels, books, plaster casts of antique statuary from which to copy, and a wood chest containing art supplies.
Carpentier gave particular prominence to the painted plaster cast of Jean-Antoine Houdon’s Seated Voltaire, which he bought from the 18th-century French sculptor’s estate. Seated Voltaire appears twice in the composition: as a sculpture and as a preliminary sketch on the canvas in progress. The French Enlightenment philosopher held personal meaning for Carpentier; he later gave the cast to the municipal library in his hometown of Rouen, where Voltaire first published his Lettres philosophiques in 1733.
Excerpt from
Nicole Myers, DMA label copy, 2017.
NOTES
Checked Piction
Standing before his easel, holding a fully loaded brush in one hand and his palette and several brushes in the other, the artist Paul Carpentier confidently and calmly gazes outward. His wife, Adèle, and eleven-year-old daughter, Clémence, lovingly admire the very painting they are posing in. Carpentier has surrounded himself with the objects that he holds most dear: his family, sculpture, and books.
Carpentier was a talented painter and sculptor, as well as an accomplished theoretician and technician of encaustic painting, the ancient process of using melted beeswax to bind pigment. His lifelong fascination with the technique resulted in authoring a detailed treatise that artists still follow today. One of his closest friends was Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), the Frenchman recognized for inventing the eponymous process of photography. As a testament to their friendship, Carpentier made a painting and bust of his colleague. More importantly, in 1855 he wrote a monograph about Daguerre that remains the greatest firsthand account on the birth of photography.
Acquisition proposal: This self-portrait by the French painter, sculptor, and engraver Paul Le Carpentier shows the artist in his studio with his wife and daughter. Le Carpentier (who sometimes also signed his works as Carpentier) was a student of Jacques-Louis David, Jean Le Barbier, and Paillot de Montabert. He exhibited at the Salon between 1817 and 1838, and again in 1853. This self-portrait was exhibited at the Salon of 1834.
Although Le Charpentier’s works are in few public collections outside his native Rouen, this large and complex portrait is a particularly impressive and engaging example of his skills as a portraitist. The faces are sensitively painted, and the artist has taken special care in describing the accoutrements of his studio, from the large wooden color box at his left to the plaster casts visible in the upper left corner of the painting, an allusion to his career as a sculptor.
Le Charpentier’s self-portrait would be an intriguing addition to the Dallas Museum of Art’s very small holdings of early-nineteenth-century European art. The acquisition of a large-scale 19th century Salon portrait has been considered a priority for some years, and this intricately composed and meticulously painted example would be a welcome companion for roughly contemporary portraits by Thomas Lawrence and Eugène Delacroix. The excellent state of preservation of the painting—on its original, unlined canvas and in its original frame—make it an excellent example of French academic painting at the time of the July Monarchy.
Carpentier, Paul Claude Michel (French, 1787-1877)
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin and depicted location: Paris (France): TGN: 7008038
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
250871410: UMO Gallery Talk From Auction Block to the DMA
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Dallas Museum of Art, Uncrated~Read a DMA blog post about the acquisition of this Carpentier painting.
- Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide~Check out this essay on Paul Carpentier's Self-Portrait of the Artist and His Family in his Studio by Martha MacLeod.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- Within days of acquiring this painting, a preparatory drawing for this work was gifted to the Dallas Museum of Art. (2015.20.FA)
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 2014.38.FA
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General Description
Standing before his easel holding brushes and his palette, the artist Paul Carpentier confidently gazes outward. His wife, Adèle, and eleven-year-old daughter, Clémence, lovingly admire the very painting in which they are posing. The red fabric of Adèle’s gown is just visible on the right edge of the painting underway. Though a triple portrait, in many ways the painting’s true subject is Carpentier’s professional status. Set in his studio, the painting showcases the tools of the educated painter’s trade: easels, books, plaster casts of antique statuary from which to copy, and a wood chest containing art supplies.
Carpentier gave particular prominence to the painted plaster cast of Jean-Antoine Houdon’s Seated Voltaire, which he bought from the 18th-century French sculptor’s estate. Seated Voltaire appears twice in the composition: as a sculpture and as a preliminary sketch on the canvas in progress. The French Enlightenment philosopher held personal meaning for Carpentier; he later gave the cast to the municipal library in his hometown of Rouen, where Voltaire first published his Lettres philosophiques in 1733.
Excerpt from
Nicole Myers, DMA label copy, 2017.
Fun Facts
- Within days of acquiring this painting, a preparatory drawing for this work was gifted to the Dallas Museum of Art. (2015.20.FA)
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Dallas Museum of Art, Uncrated~Read a DMA blog post about the acquisition of this Carpentier painting.
- Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide~Check out this essay on Paul Carpentier's Self-Portrait of the Artist and His Family in his Studio by Martha MacLeod.
Notes
Checked Piction
Standing before his easel, holding a fully loaded brush in one hand and his palette and several brushes in the other, the artist Paul Carpentier confidently and calmly gazes outward. His wife, Adèle, and eleven-year-old daughter, Clémence, lovingly admire the very painting they are posing in. Carpentier has surrounded himself with the objects that he holds most dear: his family, sculpture, and books.
Carpentier was a talented painter and sculptor, as well as an accomplished theoretician and technician of encaustic painting, the ancient process of using melted beeswax to bind pigment. His lifelong fascination with the technique resulted in authoring a detailed treatise that artists still follow today. One of his closest friends was Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), the Frenchman recognized for inventing the eponymous process of photography. As a testament to their friendship, Carpentier made a painting and bust of his colleague. More importantly, in 1855 he wrote a monograph about Daguerre that remains the greatest firsthand account on the birth of photography.
Acquisition proposal: This self-portrait by the French painter, sculptor, and engraver Paul Le Carpentier shows the artist in his studio with his wife and daughter. Le Carpentier (who sometimes also signed his works as Carpentier) was a student of Jacques-Louis David, Jean Le Barbier, and Paillot de Montabert. He exhibited at the Salon between 1817 and 1838, and again in 1853. This self-portrait was exhibited at the Salon of 1834.
Although Le Charpentier’s works are in few public collections outside his native Rouen, this large and complex portrait is a particularly impressive and engaging example of his skills as a portraitist. The faces are sensitively painted, and the artist has taken special care in describing the accoutrements of his studio, from the large wooden color box at his left to the plaster casts visible in the upper left corner of the painting, an allusion to his career as a sculptor.
Le Charpentier’s self-portrait would be an intriguing addition to the Dallas Museum of Art’s very small holdings of early-nineteenth-century European art. The acquisition of a large-scale 19th century Salon portrait has been considered a priority for some years, and this intricately composed and meticulously painted example would be a welcome companion for roughly contemporary portraits by Thomas Lawrence and Eugène Delacroix. The excellent state of preservation of the painting—on its original, unlined canvas and in its original frame—make it an excellent example of French academic painting at the time of the July Monarchy.
Carpentier, Paul Claude Michel (French, 1787-1877)
Cultures
Geography
Place of origin and depicted location: Paris (France): TGN: 7008038
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
250871410: UMO Gallery Talk From Auction Block to the DMA
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
2014.38.FA
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