Artwork
Alexander Gabriel Descamps
Alexander Gabriel Descamps is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Paul Gavarni. It dates from 1853 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
The work is a lithographic print executed in 1853 by the French illustrator Paul Gavarni, whose birth name was Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier. Rendered in black and white, the image presents a single figure in a portrait orientation, typical of mid‑nineteenth‑century portraiture.
Subject & Meaning
The sitter is a bearded man dressed in a long dark coat with a white collar, holding an open small book or notebook. He stands before a draped curtain and a stone wall that includes a window frame, suggesting an interior setting that emphasizes his scholarly or literary demeanor.
Technique & Style
Created with lithography, the print exploits the medium’s capacity for fine line work, allowing precise rendering of textures such as the coat’s folds, the curtain’s drapery, and the subject’s facial hair. The stark monochrome palette and detailed line quality reflect the illustrative conventions Gavarni employed for portrait commissions in the 1850s.
History & Provenance
The lithograph was produced during Gavarni’s prolific period as an illustrator for French periodicals and book projects. While specific ownership records are limited, the print has been catalogued among his portrait series and is representative of his output for the French visual market of the era.
Artist & collection
Artist
Paul Gavarni was the pen name of Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier (13 January 1804 – 24 November 1866), a French illustrator, born in Paris.
Gavarni
M. Pochez
Un Beau
Self-Portrait
Moullah Chéite - (à Gandjà ou Elisavetopol.)
Henry Monnier
Caporal et Chemisier
H Beard Print Collection
Vanity Fair: Statesmen No. 67 "The representative of Romance"
Sketches made during the Campaign of 1854-55 in the Crimea, Circassia and Constantinople
William Edward Dighton (1822–1853) in Middle Eastern Dress