Description
Associated with the 19th-century Symbolist movement in France, Carrière developed a distinctive, almost monochromatic palette suggesting a dream world. The limited color in this portrait of his friend, the deaf painter Armand Berton, also focuses attention on the psychology of the sitter. Translucent glazes make Berton's face emerge from the shadows. Engulfed in silence, Berton seems to rely on his other senses to perceive the world around him.
Provenance
Armand Berton, Paris. M. G. Masson (written in pencil on stretcher). Paris sale, Drouot, 5 May 1970 (lot 12), Portrait du peintre Armand Berton, 46 x 38 cm, ff 3,800. (A photograph in the Musée d'Orsay, Documentation, gives the information that the painting was at one point with Galerie Alain Lesieutre, Paris.) London sale, Sotheby's, 6 December 1973 (lot 29, repr.), Portrait du peintre Armand Breton [sic], for £700 to Dabney Associates. London sale, Sotheby's, 4 December 1975 (lot 335, repr.), Portrait du peintre Armand Breton [sic] [bought in]. Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland. Bequeathed to the CMA in 1980.
Accession Number
1980.244
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
Framed: 62.2 x 54 x 7.6 cm (24 1/2 x 21 1/4 x 3 in.); Unframed: 46 x 38 cm (18 1/8 x 14 15/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Bequest of Noah L. Butkin