Signed oil study by Marcellin Desboutin of a laughing boy in a working shirt, in a gilt wood frame

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Marcellin Desboutin, Laughing Boy in a Working Shirt, Signed Oil on Canvas, Late 19th Century, Gilt Frame

Marcellin Desboutin (1823–1902)

Price $4,900 USD

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Room setting showing the framed study hung on a pale wall (signed Desboutin study of a boy)

Detail of the head, the dark curly hair worked in loose masses with the canvas weave showing through

Reverse showing the unlined canvas on its stretcher (signed Desboutin study of a boy)

The framed study seen at an angle, showing the depth of the gilt cove moulding

Detail of the white shirt with grey braces and the signature in red at the lower right

Signature M. Desboutin in red at the lower right, beside the child's shoulder on the canvas

Close-up of the signature M. Desboutin painted in red at the lower right corner of the canvas

The mouth is open. He is caught mid-word or mid-laugh, teeth showing, and the whole head is turned into the light while the shirt below it stays roughly blocked in.

Oil on canvas, 9 x 7 inches (23 x 18 cm), 13 x 11 inches (33 x 28 cm) framed. Signed in red lower right. French, late nineteenth century, in a gilt wood frame.

A boy of eight or nine, half length against a grey green ground, his dark curly hair worked in loose masses that leave the weave showing through. He wears a loose white shirt with grey braces crossing the shoulders. The face is the only finished passage. The cheeks and the mouth carry the single warm note in the picture, laid on wet over the cooler flesh, and the eyes are set down in two dark strokes with no drawn outline anywhere.

Painted by an etcher
Desboutin was a printmaker before he was anything else, and the drypoint head was his subject for thirty years. This canvas is built the same way. A face taken quickly and alone, no drawn outline anywhere, the ground left bare where it was not needed. Nobody paid for it. It is a boy in a working shirt on nine inches of canvas, caught mid-laugh, which no sitting client would have accepted.

The frame is a gilt wood moulding with a deep cove and a stepped inner edge, the gilding worn to the bole in places.

Good original condition, the canvas unlined and stable on its stretcher, with small gaps at the frame joints.

Provenance ▾

Private French collection

Artist

Marcellin Desboutin (1823–1902)

Period

Late 19th century

Origin

France

Style

Impressionism

Medium

Oil on canvas

Signature

Signed lower right

Frame

Gilt wood frame with a deep cove and a stepped inner edge, the gilding worn to the bole in places.

Features

Original, one of a kind

Painting

9 x 7 inches

Framed

13 x 11 inches

Condition

Good original condition, the canvas unlined and stable on its stretcher. Small gaps at the frame joints and minor wear to the gilding.

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