Cleveland Museum of Art

Portrait of Jean Ajalbert

Eugène Carrière

Date

c. 1893

Medium

charcoal with white chalk

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This drawing is one of several portraits that Eugène Carrière created of the naturalist writer and art critic Jean Ajalbert. Both were part of the same Symbolist artistic and literary circles in Paris during the late 19th century. Portraiture was a favorite genre for Carrière, who often portrayed his friends and colleagues. Here, Ajalbert looks forward directly, seemingly in contrast with his otherwise hazy visage and surroundings. One of Eugène Carrière's portraits of Jean Ajalbert was translated to lithography and included as a frontispiece to his novel Sao Van Di (1905).

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.