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Self-Portrait
About the Artwork
The muted dark tones and somber gaze in this self-portrait convey the anxieties Armand Guillaumin was facing in the early 1870s. While working full-time for the French railway system, he devoted early and late hours and weekends to his artistic practice and endured rejection from the Salon, the official juried annual art exhibition in Paris. Guillaumin shared close friendships with Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, and Vincent van Gogh (whose works are on view in this gallery) and participated in six of the eight Impressionist exhibitions. This self-portrait shows the artist on the verge of establishing his career.
Inscriptions
Signed lower right: Guillaum[in]
Provenance
Tadamasa Hayashi collection, Paris. New York, American Art Galleries sale, Tadamasa Hayashi collection, 8-9 January 1913 (lot 126, repr.), Portrait d'homme, Ernest Le Véel, Paris. Versailles sale, 11, 13 June 1968 (lot 100), Autoportrait, 38 x 46 cm [reversed], signed lower right. Robert Laurent, Ogunquit, Maine. New York sale, 16 December 1970 (lot 11, repr.), Autoportrait. Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Given to the CMA on 19 December 1980.
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981). Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Armand Guillaumin (French, 1841–1927)
- Date
- c. 1872–74
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Unframed: 45.4 x 37.5 cm (17 7/8 x 14 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1980.266
More by Jean Baptiste Armand Guillaumin in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009423
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