Portrait Of A Gentleman By Jean Jacques Marie Castin, Signed And Dated 1838

Portrait of a Gentleman by Jean Jacques Marie Castin, Signed and Dated 1838

Oil on canvas signed and dated “Castin 1838” lower right.
Dimensions with frame: 53 x 44.5 cm
Canvas dimensions: 40.5 x 32 cm

Louis-Philippe period portrait depicting a young bourgeois gentleman shown half-length against a dark background. The sitter wears the elegant black attire typical of the 1830s, with a large black cravat and a white waistcoat adorned with a small decorative pin.

The painting is notable for the restraint of its composition, the refined treatment of the flesh tones, and the careful attention given to the sitter’s expression. The work retains a pleasing freshness and a delicate quality of drawing characteristic of French provincial portraiture during the July Monarchy.

The painting remains on its original canvas, never relined, with its antique stretcher preserved. Good overall condition. Period frame from the first half of the 19th century in gilded wood and gesso.

Jean Jacques Marie Castin (Rossillon, Ain, 1797 – Lyon, 1869 or 1870) was a French portrait painter active during the mid-19th century. A pupil of Jean-Claude Bonnefond at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, he regularly exhibited at the French Salons between 1833 and 1856. His work is mainly devoted to bourgeois portraiture in the restrained and elegant taste of the Louis-Philippe period.