Galerie Paul Prouté

After studying law, Marcellin Desboutin chose to join the studio of the sculptor Etex and that of the painter Couture. Drawing on the substantial inheritance left to him by his father, he then set out to travel in order to further his training and eventually purchased a villa in the hills above Florence. For seventeen years, he led a social life there and wrote, painted, drew, and engraved as a dilettante. Returning to Paris in 1872, now penniless, Desboutin continued to move in high society and artistic avant-garde circles in the capital. Forced to work to make a living but little recognized for his paintings, he eventually devoted himself to engraving: his talent as a portraitist (and self-portraitist) using drypoint thus secured him a clientele among the Parisian elite. Although the artist fell into obscurity a few years after his death, his drawings and engravings—the finest of his work—have nevertheless withstood the test of time.