Auguste Joseph Marie de Merssemann (1808 – Antwerp – 1879)

Self-portrait

inscribed: peint par lui mème xx 1844
signed and dated on verso: AJ De Mersseman/x 1844
oil on panel
8 ½ x 6 ¾ inches (21.6 x 17.1 cm.)

Provenance:
Private Collection, Breda;
Collection Blijenburg, Hilversum, before 1980.

Exhibited:
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal, Een verzameling schilderijen uit de 17de, 18de en 19de eeuw, 25 April – 8 June 1980, no. 32.

Literature:
Een verzameling schilderijen uit de 17de, 18de en 19de eeuw, exhibition catalogue, Leiden, 1980, p. 20, n. 32.

Auguste Joseph Marie de Merssemann was active as a painter in Antwerp in the nineteenth century.  His surviving oeuvre consists of portraits, interior scenes and still lifes.  The inscription on the present work (peint par lui mème xx 1844) confirms that it is a self-portrait completed when the artist was thirty-six years of age.  A canvas and easel are visible in the background, likely referencing Merssemann’s profession as an artist.  He also included an elaborately carved chair, partially concealed by a red drape – a backdrop he would repeat in his Portrait of a lady three years later in 1847.¹

Merssemann’s precise brushwork creates an exquisitely crafted surface, virtually eliminating any evidence of his paint application.  Most of the artist’s surviving works, such as Old woman with cats (Stedelijke Musea, Bruges) and Still life with shells (Sale, Auxerre, Auxerre Enchères, June 21, 2009, lot 168), exhibit the same heightened refinement and virtuoso handling.