Jean Dablin (1858–1923) Self-Portrait in the Studio, 1881 Saint-Quentin, Aisne

Jean DABLIN
(Saint-Quentin 1858 – Toulon 1923)
Self-Portrait at 23 in the Studio
Oil on canvas
H. 100 cm; W. 80 cm
Signed in the center within the painting, on the canvas behind the painter
Dated 1881

Jean Dablin was the son of Antoine Martin Dablin, architect for the département of Aisne. He trained at the municipal School of Fine Arts in Saint-Quentin, his hometown, before joining the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the studio of Henri Lehmann (1877–1881), then that of decorator Pierre-Victor Galland during the year 1882.
After marrying in Aisne in 1885 (La Fère) the daughter of a retired artillery captain, he took up a teaching position the following year at the School of Industrial Arts in Saint-Étienne. He became its director from 1892 until the age of 63 in 1921. Having settled in the region, Jean Dablin quickly established himself, exhibiting his works at the Lyon Salon and being awarded a bronze medal at the city’s Universal Exhibition in 1894.

Surprisingly, Dablin’s wife remained living in La Fère, where she gave birth to three children between 1886 and 1889 and died the following year. Dablin was also officially domiciled there, despite his position in Saint-Étienne, as noted on the various civil status records.

In 1881, the year our self-portrait was executed, Dablin presented another one (in pastel) at the Salon des Artistes Français, where he had first exhibited two years earlier. At that time, he was residing in Paris.

Another very fine self-portrait by the artist is known, created ten years later, in 1891, in which he is depicted seated in his studio, this time very brightly lit, once again surrounded by various objects, combining, as in our painting, portraiture and still life.

Our canvas, of a fine size, was executed when the artist was 23 years old and continuing his studies in Lehmann’s studio at the Beaux-Arts. Palette in hand, a canvas showing its stretcher frame hanging on the easel, all the elements of the painter’s world are present. The background consists of a shelf holding a stuffed bird, an engraving, and a rolled sheet of paper. Below it, a painting by the artist bearing the signature of the work (which was in fact altered by the artist, who moved it, as he did the date) and a wall-mounted plaster. The young painter fixes his gaze on the viewer, cigarette at his lips, looking toward the future, questioning it?