Henri Brochet (1898-1952) - Portrait

Henri Brochet (1898–1952)
Portrait of a Man
Laon, March 28, 1919

Beautiful graphite portrait on paper, by the French painter and draftsman Henri Brochet (1898–1952), signed, dated and precisely marked “Laon – March 28, 1919.”

Created only a few months after the end of the First World War, this sheet belongs to a particularly interesting period in the artist’s youth. Mobilized during the conflict and assigned as a painter, Henri Brochet produced many portraits of his contemporaries, notably comrades and soldiers.

The face, treated with great finesse through a network of hatchings and graphite shades, contrasts with the deliberately more spare treatment of the clothing. The economy of the drawing thus concentrates all attention on the subject’s expression, whose direct gaze and presence give this portrait remarkable intensity.

The verso bears the handwritten inscription “Portrait XXII.”

Dimensions: 24 × 18 cm.

Condition: some foxing and age marks as well as two old vertical folds along the full height of the sheet, visible on the reverse. The whole is clearly documented in the photographs.

A work that is both intimate and documentary, created in Laon in 1919, bearing witness to the early years of Henri Brochet’s career and to this pivotal period immediately after the Great War.