Isabey drawing

JEAN-BAPTISTE ISABEY      Nancy 1767  – 1855 Paris

Self-Portrait.

Drawing in black chalk, heightened with white; 1793-95. To be published by Cyril Lécosse in Du Portrait en Petit au Tournant des Lumières, INHA (coll. L’art et l’essai).

The brilliance of Isabey’s portraits constitutes one of the high points of this genre in France toward the end of the 18^th century. By 1794 he had begun to work in the manière noire, a genre influenced by the huge success of English mezzotints of the period. Our drawing shows the artist as a gentleman, wearing the white cravat associated with an elevated social standing. In fact, the artist’s dazzling good looks and his participation in the new French aristocratic society during the period resulted in important commissions from the court of Napoleon.  Made Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur in the first years of the new century, he was on excellent terms with both of Napoleon’s wives. He also made portrait miniatures for the Austrian Imperial family.

Although Isabey had achieved his early successes in miniature painting, the size of this drawing, 205 mm in diameter, demonstrated his ability to move from the relative constriction of miniature painting to a larger format, and he did so throughout his career. Isabey was also active as a decorator of Napoleon’s theaters and for the Sèvres factory. His portraiture, either miniature or larger, remains his enduring triumph. Personality and physical beauty become fused in a Romantic sensibility in which the good and the beautiful were seen as inevitably coterminous. 

In this self-portrait Isabey took the medium one step further; he contrasted the precise handling of his face with the more broadly conceived details of his elegant garments, thereby creating a creative tension between social standing and character. The young man’s slight turn to the left and his focused gaze suggest an engagement with the viewer that amplifies his accessibility and intelligence.

Diameter: 205 mm    8 1/16 inches