Portrait of a Man at his Desk, Jacques Sonrel

Exhibition Label: "Corpus," Apr-2012, Steve Goddard Many portraits show the sitter surrounded by the objects that shed light on his or her interests and activities. Intellectual portraits, like this one, frequently place the sitter in a study, reading room, laboratory, or studio. We do not know who the sitter is in this portrait, nor do we know much about the artist, but we can make out many of the objects that indicate literacy and an inquisitive mind. The shelves are stuffed with books, the sitter wears pince-nez (reading glasses without ear wires), and an illustrated book lies open on the desk next to a glass inkwell and a rocker blotter (for blotting fresh ink). On the upper part of the desk there is a brass microscope and a glass test tube. The man’s three-piece suit and elegant shirt stud lend an additional air of professionalism and, perhaps, of status. These clues hint at a career in the sciences, perhaps a professor of chemistry or biology. Archive Label 2003: Very little is known about the artist Jacques Sonrel. Between 1896 and 1905 he exhibited at the great French Salons (the nearly annual exhibition of contemporary art sponsored by the French government). A portrait described in the Salon catalogue of 1896 may be this one. Sonrel lived in Paris and was a student of two better-known artists, Luc-Oliver Merson (1846-1920) and Benjamin-Jean-Joseph Constant (1845-1902). We have not been able to ascertain who the sitter in this painting is, although he seems distinctive enough to be identifiable. He is clearly a man of letters, presented in a manner that has made some viewers think of the French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), but this identification is not possible.