Jakob Goldschmidt Hermann Paechter
Self-Portrait with Palette (Manet) was owned by whom in Nov 1934?
Self-Portrait with Palette ( Manet ) Self-Portrait with Palette ( French : Autoportrait à la palette ) is an 1878–79 oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Édouard Manet . This late impressionistic work is one of his two self-portraits . Velasquezs self-portrait in Las Meninas was a particular inspiration for Manets painting which despite its allusion to the previous artists work is very modern in its focus upon the personality of the artist and loose paint handling . A long series of prominent collectors have owned this painting . Most recently , it sold for $29.48 million at Sothebys on 22 June 2010 . Description . The 83 × 67 cm ( 33 × 26 in ) painting shows a half-length portrait of the painter Édouard Manet . In this self-portrait as painter he depicted himself as a stylish Boulevardier in front of a dark background . The depicted wears a black top hat and a brown jacket , under which is a white shirt , of which only the collar can be seen . The neckline of the suit jacket covers a black silk tie which is affixed by a tie pin . In the right , only vaguely depicted hand he holds a long wooden brush with red paint on the tip ; the left hand holds a painting palette with about three more brushes . No further accessories are shown . The figure is lit from the left by which the shadows beneath the left arm and the right half of the face are created . His pose is slightly turned to the right , so that the right half of the body is darker than the forward , left half . The painters gaze is directed forwards at the viewer . Because Manet was almost certainly not left-handed , the painting is a mirror image . Origin and meaning . As has been established by X-ray analysis , Manet painted his Self-Portrait with Palette over a portrait in profile of his wife Suzanne Manet . In this picture she was depicted in a pose similar to that in the painting Madame Manet at the Piano ( 1868 , Musée dOrsay ) . The dating of the painting goes back to Manets friend Théodore Duret , who asked Léon Leenhof , the son of Manets wife , about it after the painters death . Moreover , Manet had used the same suit jacket that he wore in Self-Portrait with Palette in the painting At Père Lathuille ( also from 1879 ) , for the depiction of the son of the restaurants owner . Las Meninas , in which Diego Velázquez depicted himself in a similar pose with brush and palette , is considered an important precedent for the Self-Portrait with Palette . There the painter stands almost in the background of his studio , while his models , the five-year-old Margarita Teresa of Spain and her servants , occupy the foreground . From here Manet appropriated the pose of the painter and his equipment , but as opposed to Velázquez , he makes himself the thematic center of the image . At the same time , however , he is working on a painting , but leaves its subject matter , as well as his surroundings , to the imagination of the viewer . Manet himself between 1865 and 1870 portrayed Velázquez in a studio scene in which the Spanish painter is posed similarly to his self-portrait . As a practical matter painters did not and do not wear formal dress while working , as it could far too easily be ruined by oil paint . Manets depiction of himself as a painter in stylish city-going clothes has various precedents . Already Velázquez had shown himself in costly garb that would be appropriate for a courtier . In 1870 Manet had sat for the painter Henri Fantin-Latour in the painting Un atelier aux Batignolles while similarly well-dressed . His wearing of a hat indoors also has a direct precedent . Renoir had depicted Monet in 1875 , with suit , hat and all . Just as Velázquez had used his clothes to underscore his proximity to the Spanish court , Manets clothing shows his role as a stylish and successful Parisian artist , who not only in his artistic posture , but also in his appearance is quintessentially the painter of modern life , of Baudelaires description . The unfinished right hand with the paintbrush is conspicuous in the painting . Victor Stoichiţă perceives this as Manets intention and interprets it thusly : because it is an act of painting that is depicted here , it turns painting around itself like a whirlwind Françoise Cachin explains it as a way of concentrating the light and the attention of the viewer upon the more important aspects of the painting . Manets wife Suzanne , however , described this painting and the Self-Portrait with Cap ( 1878–79 ) as sketches . Position in the Oeuvre . The Self-Portrait with Palette is the only self-portrait by Manet in which he depicted himself as an artist . He depicted himself in several other paintings , but almost always as one of many figures in a large composition . These works include Fishing ( 1860/61 ) , Music in the Tuileries ( 1862 ) , and The Ball of the Opera ( 1873 ) . The full-length Self-Portrait with Cap ( 1878–79 ) is the only other pure self-portrait by Manet . The chronological proximity of the two paintings implies a direct connection between them ; accordingly , they have been considered as two stages of a work in progress . In the first painting , Self-Portrait with Palette , the act of painting itself is depicted by the blurred gestures of the painter . In the latter work , the painter is shown with the clear detachment of a viewer , rather than a creator . To Éric Darragon it appears that the painter has stepped back , to evaluate his painting . After Manets death the two pictures hung on either side of the 1877 painting Jean-Baptiste Faure in the Role of Hamlet . From this arrangement Stoichiţă concludes that the choice of this Spanish influenced painting was meant to evoke a renewed parallel to Velázquez . Another message derived from the juxtaposition is that the self-portraits could almost be read as Manet in the Role of Manet . Juliet Wilson-Bareau , however , points out that Manet probably did not intend the pictures to be so displayed , as it was Léon Leenhoff who had the pictures framed and hung them on either side of the Faure portrait . Reception . The painting was often considered to be of lesser artistic value than Manets other works . In 1926 the critic Étienne Moreau-Nélaton wrote : This work , like the other efforts of the artist , are spoiled by a certain coldness . The artists hand moves with too much fire , painting so freely here , that it is impossible for the painter to seriously focus upon himself as an object . On the other hand , Theodore Reff in 1982 emphasized the meaning of Manets decision to approach self-portraiture , which he had never before attempted , at the high point of his career . The chosen clothes , in both case stylish suits , give the impression that Manet considered himself not only a successful artist but a successful figure in society : the paintings are a record of this success . Wilson-Bareau proposes an alternate explanation for the origin of the self-portraits . When the art historian and Manet biographer Adolphe Tabarant asked Manets stepson Léon Leenhoff about the point in time at which Manet had been stricken with Syphilis , Leenhoff gave 1879 as an answer , which would explain why Manet , who had never before in his life painted a self-portrait , had painted two within that year . It would seem that with the reality of death right before his eyes , he felt a need to come to terms with himself . The nephew of the artist , Edouard Vibert ( 1867–1899 ) finished shortly before his death a series of copies of various Manet paintings for Madame Manet as mementos of the paintings that had had to be sold after the death of the artist . Around the turn of the 20th century a copy of the Self-Portrait with Palette was attested that was ascribed to Vibert . Provenance . The Self-Portrait with Palette was not sold during Manets lifetime and after his death was held by his widow . Nor were either of the self-portraits sold in the 1884 estate sale . Manets widow does not appear to have wanted to sell them until 1897 , as Antonin Proust in a letter from May 10 of that year stated that neither Jean-Baptiste Faure nor Auguste Pellerin were interested in the paintings . On 2 February 1899 , Suzanne Manet bequeathed the pictures to her sister Martina Leenhoff , probably with the intention of aiding her during financial difficulties . That year , Madame Manet and Proust renewed their efforts to sell the paintings . This time the art dealers Hermann Paechter and Ambroise Vollard expressed interest . Later that year Paechter obtained the paintings at the price of 6,000 Francs for the Self-Portrait with Cap and only 1,000 for Self-Portrait with Palette . In Théodore Durets 1902 exhibit catalog the picture is listed as the property of Pellerin . Shortly after , the Self-Portrait with Cap went to the collection of Max Linde in Lübeck . In addition to being an art collector Linde was also an ophthalmologist , with Edvard Munch among his patients . Eventually the Norwegian artist was inspired by the Manet to paint various other full length portraits , including a 1909 portrait of his psychiatrist Daniel Jacobson , which came close to the Manet in style and feeling . In May 1910 , the Self-Portrait with Palette appeared in an exhibit at the gallery of Georges Petit in Paris , where it was labeled as on loan from the widow of the Marquis Etienne de Ganay . Just a month later it was shown in an exhibit by the gallery owners Paul Durand-Ruel , Bernheim-Jeune and Paul Cassirer together with all other Manet paintings that had previously been owned by Pellerin . Pellerin had sold his collection to the dealers , with the exception of the Self-Portrait with Palette , which he had sold to Madame de Ganay immediately beforehand . Ganay owned the painting through the 1920s ; by 1931 it was in the collection of the Berlin bank president Jakob Goldschmidt . Goldschmidt immigrated to New York City in 1936 , taking his collection with him , and died there in 1955 . In 1958 the painting was bought by J . Summers for 65,000 . Later the collector couple John and Frances L . Loeb from New York acquired the painting for $176,800 . At the auction of the Loeb collection on 12 May 1997 the painting was sold for $18.7 million to an anonymous bidder . At that time it was the second highest price ever paid for a work by Manet . Shortly thereafter the new owner was revealed to be the Casino developer Steve Wynn , as he displayed the picture in his hotel in the Hotel Bellagio and Wynn Las Vegas . In March 2005 , it was privately sold to Steven A . Cohen . The price is estimated to have been between $35 million to $40 million . On 7 May 2010 , it was announced that Cohen had decided to auction the painting at Sothebys on 22 June 2010 . The price was expected to be between $30.1 and $45.2 million . These expectations were not met , however , and the painting sold for £22,441,250 ( $29.48 million ) to the New York collector Franck Giraud . The price was nevertheless a record for a Manet painting . References . - Charles S . Moffet : Selbstporträt mit Palette . In : Manet 1832–1883 . Réunion des Musées Nationaux , Paris , The Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York , Frölich & Kaufmann , Berlin 1984 , . - Theodor Reff : Manet and modern Paris . National Gallery of Art , Washington und University of Chicago Press , Chicago und London 1982 , . - Victor Ieronim Stoichiţă : Eduard Manet : Selbstporträt , 1879 . In : Ulrich Pfisterer , Valeska von Rosen : Der Künstler als Kunstwerk . Selbstporträts vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart . Philipp Reclam jun. , Stuttgart 2005 , . - Gary Tinterow , Geneviève Lacambre : Manet/Velázquez : The French Taste for Spanish Painting . Réunion des Musées Nationaux , Paris , The Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York , Yale University Press , New Haven und London 2003 , .