On view
European Art
Self-Portrait,
ca. 1796
Jean-Baptiste Wicar, 1762–1834; born Lille, France; died Rome, Italy
y1992-63
Under a top hat covering his tousled curls, Wicar looks out with an engaging glint in his eye. After a brief imprisonment for siding with the most radical revolutionary political faction of the French Revolution, Wicar departed for Italy. Around the time he painted this self-portrait, Napoleon Bonaparte asked him to select artwork to seize from Italy for the French national collections. Wicar showed himself in bourgeois dress, seemingly aglow with satisfaction at his newly improved fortunes.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Self-Portrait
Dates
ca. 1796
Maker
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
25.8 × 25.5 cm (10 3/16 × 10 1/16 in.)
frame: 37.5 × 37.8 × 6.3 cm (14 3/4 × 14 7/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
y1992-63
Culture
Type
Subject
Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s London, July 3, 1991, lot 63; Haboldt and Co., Paris (by 1991–92; sold to Princeton University Art Museum).
- Fernand Beaucamp, Le peintre lillois Jean-Baptiste Wicar (1762-1834): son oeuvre et son temps, (Lille: E. Raoust, 1939)., Vol. 1: frontispiece Vol. 2: p. 636; p. 635, no. 41
- Chevalier wicar: peintre, dessinateur et collectioneur lillois, (Lille, France: Musée des beaux-arts de Lille, 1984)., p. 24-26; p. 25, fig. 4
- Portrait de l'artiste: images des peintres 1600-1890: catalogue de tableaux et dessins anciens et de photographies du XIXème siècle, (Paris: Haboldt & Co., 1991)., no. 45 (illus.)
- Sotheby's. 1991. Old master paintings, sale IRIS. 3 July 1991, London., lot 63
- Old master paintings: French, Northern and Italian schools, (Paris: Haboldt, 1992?)., no. 9 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1992," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 52, no. 1 (1993): p. 36-83., p. 82
- Margot Gordon, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Wicar drawings, (Roma: Edizioni De Luca, 1995)., pp. 44-45, no. 41 (verso), no. 42 (recto)
- Margaret A. Oppenheimer, The French Portrait: Revolution to Restoration: September 30-December 11, 2005, Smith College Museum of Art (Northampton, MA: Smith College Museum of Art, 2005)., cat. no. 49, p. 189 (illus.)
