Gustav Wertheimer (1847-1904), Man Resting Against Wall, 1881

Superb oil painting by Oliver Rhys (1854-1907), signed and titled 'A Cool Corner'. Representation of two children sitting on a ledge with a Mediterranean backdrop. Excellent conditi...

Superb painting on cardboard of a forest landscape of Fontainebleau at dawn by the multidisciplinary artist Paul Louchet (1854-1936). Signed at the bottom right and titled at the bac...

Beautiful painting of a bouquet of a bouquet of roses in a vase, by the artist Serge Belloni (1925-2005). Framed under glass. Frame gilt gold. Signed "Se...

Superb Italian Joan of Arc marble bust after Henri Chapu attributed to Professor Giuseppe Bessi from the Italian 19th century romantic period. In wh...

Drawing of Alexandre Dumas père by Paul Gavarni This drawing by Gavarni uses a mixed media technique. It is beautifully made and in good condition. There are minor traces of moist...

Man Sitting is an Original Pencil Drawing realized by Pierre Georges Jeanniot (1848-1934). Hand-Signed by the artist on the lower margin. Good condition on a brown colored cardboa...

Adolph Eduard Otto von Faber du Faur (1828 Ludwigsburg - 1901 Munich). Man sitting in the studio. Watercolour painting, 43 x 27 cm (visible size), 73 x 53 cm (frame), monogrammed at lower right, estate stamp. Upper right corner neatly repaired, small tear in the wall to the left of the sitter. - Thinking about art - About the artwork The sitter, an elderly man, is seated in a studio on a pedestal reminiscent of an academy hall. The earthy, dark tones give the scene a weighty quality. The lightest tones are found in the incarnate parts of the figure, which do not stand out from the other colours of the picture, but are linked to them. As a result, the sitter's face is both part of and the highlight of the colour references in the picture. The colour of the sitter's skin is reflected in his pink coat, while his white-grey hair matches the colour of the wall next to him. This almost monochrome wall surface, in turn, is connected across the portrait to the framed picture standing on the floor, which seems to have been erased by this correspondence with the empty wall surface. Through the palette, which is positioned directly behind the sitter's head, the reference to painting, which is already given by the studio space, is explicitly linked to the sitter, who thus seems to be contemplating the question of the meaning of art. This raises the question of whether Faber Du Faur, who had become lonely in his old age, might have painted a self-portrait here in his later years. In addition to the studio setting, the sitter's explicit reference to the palette and the fact that the picture was part of his estate, the only summary elaboration of the body suggests a self-portrait, while the representation of the face is concretised with the wide-open eyes typical of a self-portrait. This concentration on the face gives the impression of the artist's melancholy introspection, captured by the palette and related to the meaning of painting, whose dark character is reinforced by the concealment of the palette hanging on the right of the picture in the light tones so characteristic of Faber Du Faur. In the course of this resignation, Faber du Faur advises his son Hans, who has also become a painter: "Promise me one thing: never move to Munich, they'll kill you here!" Whoever the sitter may be, the references to painting make the portrait a resigned self-contemplation by Faber Du Faur, focused on art. About the artist After leaving school, Otto Faber du Faur entered the service of the Württemberg army, at the same time cultivating his artistic talent. In 1851, on the recommendation of his father Christian Wilhelm, who was himself a battle painter, he spent six months in Munich as an apprentice to Alexander von Kotzebue. In 1852 he was granted a year's leave of absence from military service to study battle painting in the studio of Adolphe Yvon...

1880s Paul Albert Besnard pencil drawing of a reclining woman. In a gold gilt frame. From a celebrities Southampton, NY oceanfront estate.