I was doing my routine of stumbling around on eBay France several weeks ago when I happened upon something quite unique and If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know what a great admirer I am of any artist who can do righteous justice to a portrait. I happened upon this tiny (8 cm by 11 cm) portrait of a young student of the College of Algiers, dated 1884-1885. I do not think that the seller even realized he had a pencil drawing, overlaid with gouache. It was just a miniature portrait to be disposed of. The pencil markings on the reverse even identified the sitter as “Henri Martin,” class of 1884-1885.
In the age when the wealthy could hire Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre to produce a photographic likeness of the sitter in perfect detail it remained to the lowly artist with pencil, paper, and watercolor in hand, to produce a tiny, beautiful work of art for the sitter, which is far more beautiful in my humble opinion than any photograph of the time, and which has survived intact for 138 years. Enjoy as much as I do!
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