Self-portrait | Narodna galerija

This painting is a partial copy of the self-portrait of Jean Jouvenet in the Museé des Beaux-Arts in Rouen (Inv. No. 597 according to the inventory of 1911). The original canvas, 78 x 137 cm, is of a horizontal rectangular format and shows the painter with his palette and a brush in his left hand, while his right hand is raised in declamation. The canvas in Rouen, which was painted around 1691, was copied in a print in oval format by Antoine Trouvain in 1707. There are many copies of the original. An example measuring 67.5 x 141 cm was offered as a painting from the artist’s workshop at the Christie’s auction in Monaco on 3 July 1993, No. 42.

The present copy, which was copied from a canvas of larger dimensions, is no doubt the best. We can date it close to the time of the original.

Artist Jean Jouvenet

Technique oil, canvas

Dimensions 51 x 40,5 cm

Inventory number NG S 831, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Provenance: Antiquarian Volpi, Trieste (Anton Raphael Mengs); in 1865 it was bought by Eduard Strahl; Eduard and Karl Strahl collection, Stara Loka until 1930; the Narodna galerija, Ljubljana, purchased the painting in 1930, old Inv. No. 470.
Exhibitions: 1930, Ljubljana, no catalogue; 1983, Ljubljana, No. 97.
Lit.: Polec 1930b, p. 150 (publishes Strahl’s correspondence with the antiquarian Volpi and the catalogue of the Strahl collection, where this painting is entered as No. 247 and attributed to Mengs); Lossky 1938, p. 177 (draws attention to various Jouvenet self-portraits); Lossky 1937–1938, p. 418, No. 111; Rosenberg 1966, p. 52 (copy); Schnapper 1974, p. 199, No. 70; Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, p. 166, Cat. and Fig. No. 97.