Self-Portrait at Easel

About the Artwork

In this self-portrait, Hippolyte Petitjean depicted himself standing before an easel while gazing directly at the viewer. The drawing is one of five representations of himself that the artist created late in his career based on his admiration for Rembrandt van Rijn. Petitjean was deeply influenced by the anarchist writer Charles-Albert, who argued for the utopian potential of artmaking, suggesting that the work was meant as a broader statement about the place of the artist within contemporary society.

Inscriptions

inscribed, upper right, in conté crayon: HP [artist’s monogram] / 1897; watermark, bottom center: ED & Cie. / PL BAS

Provenance

1964: (sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, June 26, 1964) presumably 1964-1998: Oscar Ghez [1905-1998], Geneva, Switzerland 1998-?: by descent to Claude Ghez, New York, NY 2015-2019: Petit Palais, Geneva Switzerland (Ghez Collection) 2019: (sale, Ader, Paris, November 8, 2019, no. 105, sold to De Bayser, Paris) 2019-2021: (De Bayser, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) 2021-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).

Quick Overview

Artist: Hippolyte Petitjean (French, 1854–1929)
Date: 1897
Medium: conté crayon with charcoal on laid paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 62 x 47.7 cm (24 7/16 x 18 3/4 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession no.: 2021.6

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.