Self-Portrait

Bonnat painted this self-portrait in 1896, when he was sixty-two and at the height of his official reputation. He had been elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1881, was a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts where students included Toulouse-Lautrec and Gustave Moreau, and had been awarded the Legion of Honor's highest grade. By this point Bonnat was a pillar of the French establishment rather than a figure at the avant-garde margin, making this self-portrait an exercise in self-examination rather than self-promotion. The portrait is held in Prague's National Gallery, having entered Czech collections through the art market. Bonnat's self-portraits are characteristically unflinching; he applied to his own face the searching intensity he brought to all sitters, refusing the self-flattery common in official portraiture.

Oil on canvas with the rich chiaroscuro and tonal control that defines Bonnat's mature portraiture. The face is modeled with sculptural seriousness, the background receding into darkness to concentrate attention entirely on the artist's physiognomy.