Armand Point (1860-1932) - Ritratto di Paul Gillet

Armand Point

(Algiers, 1860 – Naples, 1932)

Portrait of Paul Gillet

Oil on canvas, 27 x 22 cm

Inscription: Armand, to my friend Paul Gillet

The painting depicts the portrait of a man in profile, identifiable, thanks to the inscription placed in the upper right corner, as Paul Gillet. Born in Lyon in 1874 and died in 1971, Gillet was a prominent banker and a refined art collector, particularly interested in French painting and Italian maiolicas. His prestigious collection of ancient Faenza maiolicas is today housed at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon.

The work, presumably donated to the collector by the author, bears in the upper right corner the signature “Armand,” likely identifiable with Armand Point (1861–1932), one of the leading exponents of French Symbolism. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and initially influenced by Naturalism, Point soon directed his inquiry toward a Symbolist language inspired by Italian Renaissance art, by Pre-Raphaelite art, and by the decorative arts. Founder of the Atelier de Haute-Claire, he promoted an ideal of recovering the unity of the arts, conceiving artistic production according to an artisanal model with medieval roots.

The subject is represented with sober, measured elegance, through an image that effectively conveys the social status and refined culture of the patron. The painting technique, characterized by rapid, economical, confident brushstrokes, gives the portrait liveliness without renouncing the faithful rendering of the subject’s physiognomy and psychological character.