19th Century French School - Portrait Of A Man In Front Of An Easel

French school of the mid-19th century
Man seated in front of an easel in a studio
Oil on canvas 72.5 x 91.5 cm

Unfortunately anonymous, this skilfully painted painting could represent a collector or an art critic, rather than a painter in his studio. Indeed, the clothes he wears, as well as the fact that he holds a pen and not a brush could be clues that direct us on this track. The allegory of truth (or a Venus with a mirror?) on the easel, the copy after Raphael on the right or even the frieze of the Panathenaic in the background unfortunately do not allow us to identify the painter's studio or the model, but why dream that it could be Gérard de Nerval? Indeed, the great poet of the Romantic movement was also a charismatic art critic. The famous photograph of Nadar revealing the poet dates from 1855, and shows some similarities, in particular in the cut of the mustache or the implantation of the hair. Even if we do not affirm it, it is not impossible that our table, carried out about fifteen years before the photograph, can represent it.