Portrait of a Young Boy - Oils on Canvas - signed B. De La Rancière

 If you have been paying attention to my blog entries over the years you know how much I love a well executed portrait because in a portrait you quickly learn from the results who has and who does not have the training and artistic ability to depict the human face. A finely executed portrait will show how well the artist was trained and how well he or she puts that training to good use. Several days ago I was bouncing around on eBay France when I ran across this small portrait executed in oils of a young boy. Not only was the little guy cute as a button but the artist had done a fine job of combining color and brush work to bring him to life on canvas. The price was attractive and ridiculously low for an original painting so I placed a flag on it for later consideration. No sooner had I tagged it than up pops a reduction in price offer from the seller which now put the little guy in the "I stole that" category so I executed the purchase. Close examination of that use of rich color, texture, and very talented brush work has produced an exciting little portrait. Unfortunately, I could find no biographical information on the artist so that will have to remain a mystery for now. I know it's somewhat outside the purview of the blog but I simply had to share that artistic talent.  Enjoy.