2. MPS n°2 - Doubt

MPS
MEN PORTRAITS SERIES
n°2
English text
menportraits.blogspot.com
© Francis Rousseau 2011-2020
Transla4on : Anne Menuhin
DOUBT

MEN PORTRAITS
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Doubt
Raffaelo Sorbi (1844-1931)
Portrait of Emilio Zocchi, 1868
Private Collection
The first doubt is self-doubt. In general, human beings do not particularly like this doubt
because one is projected into a cycle which we tend to consider as dangerous. However,
there is nothing dangerous in doubting oneself. Doubt is the obligatory companion of
evolution: if one does not question one's certainties, one will never accept any criticism.
Doubt is at the center of the ordeal that constitutes for each individual personal
evolution.
The Florentine sculptor Emilio Zocchi (1835-1913) represented here, was never in
harmony with the movements of his time. Mostly known for his busts, bas-reliefs and
statuettes of individuals in the Renaissance style, he shunned fashions and took refuge in
a classicism appreciated by his Florentine bourgeois and / or patrician clientele but
despised by artistic circles. Taciturn by temperament, he liked to pay homage to
Michelangelo whom he sculpted in different situations, the most famous being
Michelangelo as a child which is preserved in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Did Zocchi doubt that by choosing the academic style rather than impressionism, he
had made the right artistic choice? Never. Yet his gaze in this portrait questions the
viewer. He seems to be saying, "You who are looking at me, wherever you are in time or
in space - maybe even a century away - what do you think? "
The painter Raffaelo Sorbi, author of this portrait of Zocchi, was of the same artistic
mood. Florentine like Zocchi, he produced small canvases, sold by the Galerie Goupil
in Paris, many of which were in the Neo Pompeian style inspired by ancient Rome or
Tuscan history.

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Doubt
Three portraits of Fayoum
1st- 4th century
Are they still alive?
This is the question posed by these faces that arise with intensity from a very distant
past, these "Fayoum portraits", a set of paintings dating back to Roman Egypt, executed
between the 1st and the 4th centuries of the Christian era. . They are so called because
of the place of their initial discovery, in 1888, the Fayoum region of Egypt.
These are indeed funeral portraits painted on the bark of the fig-sycamore tree and
inserted into the mummy's strips at the level of the face. (see below).
These deceased, more alive than dead, are always depicted as frontal busts. The
"Fayoum portraits", which thus stare straight into our eyes from the depths of Egyptian-
Roman antiquity, continue the funeral tradition of the mummy of ancient Egypt and
the decorated sarcophagus. They enrich it, however, with influences concerning the
representation of the body, linked to invasions and immigration, notably Greek and
then Roman. The mummy's face was not the only function of the "Fayoum portraits".
Above all, they had the capacity to help the living to remember the deceased as he was
during his lifetime and whom the portrait should resemble as much as possible,
according to Roman tradition. This fitted perfectly with Egyptian culture and its own
cult of imagery linked to the body of the deceased developed throughout the Pharaonic
era. In Egyptian culture, the deceased had to survive physically and spiritually, and his
body served as a physical attachment to those intangible parts of a being ( the ka and
ba).
The Egyptian tradition went further than the Roman tradition in doubts about the
condition of the dead. The Egyptians went so far as to preserve the mummy of the
deceased inside the house and involve it in every meal. With a Fayoum at one's table,
some could almost doubt that he was dead. It’s also the same doubt about death which
still persists today in these portraits and makes them so disturbing and fascinating, 20
centuries after their creation ...

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Doubt
Yukio Mishima (1925-1970)
photographed in 1967
with his Kendo sabre
3 years before his suicide
In the late 1940s, 24-year-old Yukio Mishima
(pseudonym Kimitake Hiraoka) wrote the Confession of
a Mask. It is an autobiographical work depicting a man
who has to hide his homosexual desires. He immediately
became famous in his country and, in just a few years, all
over the world. At that time, Mishima doubting himself,
absolutely wanted to change the situation by bartering his
appearance of a fragile young man for that of an athlete.
He forced himself to do extremely restrictive physical
exercises. In 1955, he had an athletic body. He
maintained it until the end of his life, practicing Kendo,
the Japanese sword fencing of the Samurai.
After considering an alliance with Michiko Shōda - who
later became Empress of Japan having married Emperor
Akihito - in 1958 he married Yoko Sugiyama with whom
he had 2 children. This tidy life was not a choice but a
sacrifice to satisfy the "desire of his mother". Everyone
knows that the writer led a double life: he was seen in the
gay bars of Tokyo which he claimed to frequent "as an
observer"; he was said to have links with foreigners
passing through or with various Frenchmen when he
stayed in Paris, etc ...
Although Mishima's homosexuality appears clearly in his
works, in Japan this theme remained taboo, even several
decades after his death. In 1995, his family sued the
novelist Jiro Fukushima who published a book,
accompanied by letters, on his affair with Mishima.
Before being totally banned, the book sold more than
90,000 copies. As for the photos where Mishima exhibits
his body (like this one), they have since become the
iconic standard bearers of homosexual aesthetics.
In 1968, Mishima even went so far as to play himself in a
film - which has become legendary - The Black Lizard,
alongside the onagata (the transexual) Akihiro Miwa, and
was said to have been her / his lover! Mishima's own
western biographer Henry Scott-Stokes formally sweeps
away the doubt over Mishima's homosexuality, recalling
that the very death of Mishima, his shinjū (double
suicide) was a way of authenticating the love that Mishima
and Morita had for one another. In fact, during 1970,
Mishima completed his sumptuous tetralogy The Sea
of Fertility with his fourth volume: The Decomposing
Angel. On November 25, he posted the end of the
manuscript to his editor, then went to the Ministry of
Defense where he held a general hostage and summoned
the troops to whom he gave a speech in favour of the
restoration of Imperial authority. It was an attempted
coup! The reaction of the 800 soldiers present was
hostile. Confronted by the boos, Mishima theatrically
withdrew and returned home to immediately kill himself
by seppuku in front of his lover, Masakatsu Morita, who
according to tradition, finished the deed by decapitating
him. Morita immediately followed Mishima to his own
death. This coup was meticulously prepared for more
than a year, and had even been described identically in
his novel Escaped Horses(1969). Before committing
suicide, Mishima smoked an Onshino Tabako, the
special cigarettes from the Imperial Household in Japan.
On the occasion of the publication of his essay, Mishima
or the Vision of the Void (1980), Academician
Marguerite Yourcenar said in the Apostrophes program:
"Mishima's death was one of his works and the most
carefully prepared".

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Doubt
Andrea Solario (1461524)
Man with a pink carnation, 1495
National Gallery London
This man, who was a senator from Venice, ostensibly holds a pink carnation in his right hand, which is
not, one will easily agree, the primary vocation of a senator, even a Venetian senator.
If on the other hand we remember that the pink carnation was a symbol of commitment and we bring
see this sign in relation to the very beautiful blue and gold ring that the senator wears on his thumb, we
can quickly deduce that this man with such a proud bearing is preparing to be married! Venetian
tradition has it that on the day of the wedding, the bridegroom offers his bride a pink carnation which
she hastens to hide in her clothes. No more doubt: this portrait is therefore that of a senator on the
very day of his marriage.
Although his identity is unknown to us, his outfit tells us that he was a high-ranking Venetian.
The hat and the stole (the piece of fabric folded on his chest) attest to the maturity of the personage.
His tunic, on the other hand, suggests that he may have been a magistrate because only members of
one of the city councils were allowed to wear red.
Venice, in the 1490s, was at the center of portrait innovations thanks to the adoption of new
techniques and new conceptions of painting from the Netherlands.
Solario painted the man according to all the canons of the latest fashion, using a three-quarter pose,
rather than in profile, against the backdrop of a green valley.
Solario was originally from Milan although he mainly worked in Venice.

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Doubt
José Montes de Oca (1668-1754)
St Benedicttof Palermo, 1730,
Minneápolis Institute of Arts
Benedict the Moore (1526 - 1589) or
Benedict the Black or Benedict of Palermo
was an Italian Reformed Franciscan,
recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church.
He is the patron saint of the Black
community in North America.
Benenedict the African was the son of
Christophe, a slave of Yoruba or Ethiopian
origin and of the Sicilian Diane Manasseri,
who became Christians. His parents agreed
to conceive a child only on condition that he
would be freed ... but, despite the promises,
being a boy, he was born a slave and
remained so until the age of 18. For the next
ten years, he made a living as a day worker,
sharing his meagre salary with the poor and
devoting his free time to caring for the sick
and meditation.
Because of his ethnic origin, he was a subject
of mockery, but always answered
humiliations with kindness and dignity.
During one of these taunts, the sweetness of
Benoît's responses caught the attention of
Jérôme Lanza. Shortly after this incident,
Benedict was able to dispose of his rare
goods and join Jérôme Lanza's small group
of hermits, who took him under their
protection.
Benedict then entered the Reformed Minor
Brothers' strict observance at the Franciscan
convent of St. Mary of Jesus near Palermo
where it is said that food multiplied
miraculously in his hands. In 1578 he was
appointed superior of the order for three
years despite his wishes as well as his being
unable to either read or write.
Benedict's reputation for holiness spread
throughout the country and attracted many
faithful. He was said to be discreet and ready
to hide or move around at night in order to
avoid attracting attention. There are,
however, representations of this saint,
covered in jewellry and feathers that could
cast doubt on his legendary discreet nature!
Fake news? !
The fact remains that Benedict the African
was beatified on May 15, 1743 by Benedict
XIV and canonized by Pius VII on May 24,
1807.
In 1998, the mayor of Palermo relaunched
his cult in Sicily in order to inspire in his
citizens a more open vision of race relations.
In 2000, his name was given to a chair
created by the city in coordination with
UNESCO to promote inter-cultural and
inter-religious dialogue.

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Doubt
Guido Mazzoni (1450 - 1518)
Old man's head, 1480-85
Terracotta, 26 x 17 x 20 cm.
Galleria Estensi, Modena
.
The success of the painter and illuminator Guido Mazzoni was assured above all by his excellence
in an artistic genre which was enormously popular in northern Italy in the 15th century: life-size
polychrome statues, isolated or in sacred groups. Already widely used in sacred Spanish art as of
the 12th century, this polychrome statuary with immediate expressive impact quickly became very
sought after in Italy. Guido Mazzoni's success with the working class was followed very quickly by
important recognition from the aristocracy. Thus in 1491, he was called to Naples to the
Aragonese court which, being of Spanish origin, was familiar with this statuary art it having been
established for several centuries already on the Spanish peninsula. In Naples, he made the bronze
bust of Ferdinand I (now kept at the Capodimonte museum).
The king of France Charles VIII, discovering Mazzoni during his passage through Naples,
decided to take him with him to Paris. The documents of the time mention him as a painter and
illuminator. He worked with Giovanni Giocondo at the Château d'Amboise, gaining esteem and
admiration. On the death of Charles VIII, he was commissioned to execute the royal tomb
intended for the Basilica of Saint-Denis, a sumptuous work in enamelled bronze, surrounded by
statues of angels and weeping virtues. The sepulchre was destroyed during the French Revolution.
After a brief stay in Italy in 1507, he returned to France in the service of Louis XII. He worked at
the castle of Blois, making two statues of the king: one in hunting costume and the second, in
stone, as an equestrian monument placed at the entrance of the castle.
Who was this old man? Who owned this look that expresses so many doubts? A prince's face? or
anonymous? Given the notoriety of the sculptor, there would be, a priori, little chance that the
subject was an unknown. Yet Mazzoni, like many artists of his time, loved sculpting the faces of
strangers from whom he drew inspiration for his large sacred polychrome groups. It may
therefore be that this person was one of those familiar faces that Mazzoni met in the streets of
Modena and whom he asked to come to his studio to pose. But truth be told ... we don't know!

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Doubt
Dick Ket( 1902-1940°,
Selfportrait with Red Geranium, 1932,
Oil on canvas, 80, 5 x 54 cm
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Dick Ket was a painter known for his still lifes and especially his self-portraits (40 of the 140 paintings he painted). This
Self-portrait with Red Geranium directly evokes models of Italian and German Renaissance art, from which often
borrowed, such as the oblique regard which expresses an ironic questioning or an existential doubt (Botticelli, Dürer),
the bare breast ( Dürer), the hand holding a flower ... His meticulously composed still lifes always revolve around the
same themes and almost always represent the same objects, namely bottles (like the one he holds in his right hand), an
almost empty bowl (bottom right) often chipped or dirty, eggs, musical instruments, newspapers, children's toys (like the
articulated horse hanging on the wall) ... Ket juxtaposed these objects in angular arrangements, seen from above, in an
angled perspective, the shadows cast by the objects always creating interesting diagonals.
Today he is considered to be one of the most endearing representatives of Dutch magic realism.
His technical experiments with different additives in the composition of his pigments, mediums and varnish, had the
effect of causing an astonishing result that has been difficult for curators to manage, since some of his paintings are still
not completely dry after 80 years !!!
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Arnhem Museum and the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam are
among the museums that keep works by Dick Ket at their own risk.

MEN PORTRAITS
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Doubt
Ilya Repin (1844-1930)
Portrait of Nikolaï Remissoff (1887-1975)
painted in 1917 à Saint Petersbourg
This portrait was painted in Saint
Petersburg, just two months before the
Revolution that led Imperial Russia to
the coup d'etat we know.
In this year 1917, Remissoff was still a
student at the prestigious Imperial
Academy of Fine Arts in Saint
Petersburg where he had been for
almost 10 years.
When the 1917 Revolution broke out,
Ilya Répine, a famous painter at the
height of his glory, fortified by his
numerous Imperial commissions, went
to the capital to exchange with other
painters. He chaired a meeting which
proposed the creation of
the "Union of Plastic Arts and Actors"
which would reorganise the Academy of
Fine Arts, on the model of a
"production and knowledge
community". It was at this precise
moment that he met Remissoff and
painted his portrait to illustrate the
utopian "production commune".
But, while Remissoff was employed as a
designer for the magazines Strekoza,
Satyricon, and then Novy Satyricon
where he published satirical drawings
on political subjects, a serious doubt
seized him as to the interpretation of
the revolutionary ideal, especially at the
time of the seizure of power by force by
a tiny group of rabid Bolsheviks.
In 1920, disappointed in his
revolutionary expectations, he decided
to emigrate and settled, like many
Russians, in Paris. He immediately
found work there in a painting
workshop where he produced
advertising posters and political
propaganda. He also collaborated as a
theater decor painter on more or less
obscure Parisian stages…
In 1922, new doubts and new
beginnings… towards the United States
this time where he became in 1939 -
after several lean years - decorator and
then artistic director in Hollywood.
This time, success was waiting and
between 1939 and 1960, he worked on
forty films including Mice and Men or
Turnabout or Let's change sex »,
something which he never dared do,
one area being off limits to his doubts!

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Doubt
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528)
Ecce homo
Oil on wood panel, 30x19cm, circa 1493
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
This famous work by Dürer represents Jesus Christ after he was flogged and mocked by the soldiers, just
before he was crucified. Jesus bleeds profusely from his human wounds and he holds in his hands the
instruments used to beat him: a whip with three knots and a bundle of birch rods. He wears the crown of
thorns. He rests his head on his right hand in a gesture of sorrow. His other hand rests on a ledge from
which it protrudes slightly, a device of perspective that Dürer often used to add depth.
The face is painted with great realism. On a golden background, Christ looks towards the observer of the
painting, expressing resignation at his fate. This devotional panel, although unsigned, was attributed to
Dürer in 1941 and has since been widely accepted as one of the finest works of his youth. This extremely
moving work, so full of humanity, dates from the time when Dürer was a Companion and it could very
well have been produced in Strasbourg, probably in 1493 or early 1494. It bears the title of Ecce Homo,
which we can translate by Here is Man in the sense of Here is a Human being, a direct allusion to the
Christian dogma according to which God sent his son, embodied as an ordinary man, to save the human
race ... who then doubted his divine nature and crucified him.
"Eloï, Eloï, lamma sabachtani" (My God! My God! Why have you abandoned me?) Christ's supposed
words as he died on the cross. Words reported in the Gospels of Matthew (27,46) and Mark 1 (5,34),
thus giving doubt a divine dimension.
,

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Doubt
Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929)
Watching the sea
Private collection
La chair est triste, hélas ! et j’ai lu tous les livres.
Fuir ! là-bas fuir! Je sens que des oiseaux sont ivres
D’être parmi l’écume inconnue et les cieux !
Rien, ni les vieux jardins reflétés par les yeux
Ne retiendra ce cœur qui dans la mer se trempe
Ô nuits ! ni la clarté déserte de ma lampe
Sur le vide papier que la blancheur défend
Et ni la jeune femme allaitant son enfant.
Je partirai ! Steamer balançant ta mâture,
Lève l’ancre pour une exotique nature !
Un Ennui, désolé par les cruels espoirs,
Croit encore à l’adieu suprême des mouchoirs !
Et, peut-être, les mâts, invitant les orages,
Sont-ils de ceux qu’un vent penche sur les naufrages
Perdus, sans mâts, sans mâts, ni fertiles îlots …
Mais, ô mon cœur, entends le chant des matelots !
The flesh is sad, alas! and all the books are read.
Flight, only flight! I feel that birds are wild to tread
The floor of unknown foam, and to attain the skies!
Nought, neither ancient gardens mirrored in the eyes,
Shall hold this heart that bathes in waters its delight,
O nights! nor yet my waking lamp, whose lonely light
Shadows the vacant paper, whiteness profits best,
Nor the young wife who rocks her baby on her breast.
I will depart! O steamer, swaying rope and spar,
Lift anchor for exotic lands that lie afar!
A weariness, outworn by cruel hopes, still clings
To the last farewell handkerchief’s last beckonings!
And are not these, the masts inviting storms, not these
That an awakening wind bends over wrecking seas,
Lost, not a sail, a sail, a flowering isle, ere long?
But, O my heart, hear thou, hear thou, the sailors’ song!
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) - Brise marine
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) - Brise marine
Translated by Arthur Symons for Harper’s Magazine

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Doubt
Frederick Inman Monsen (1865-1929)
Portrait of Poo-wish-ke-ja-le-kiss, Navajo.
Painted Desert, Arizona. ca 1900
,
Photographer Frederick Monsen arrived in
Colorado to work as editor of a newspaper for
which he began to photograph Native
American peoples.
He had no idea then that it would become the
job of his entire life, to the point that he would
end up living with these indigenous peoples of
the southwest of the United States.
The young Poo-wish-ke-ja-le-kiss, of which
Monsen painted the portrait (opposite) around
1900, belonged to the very noble and ancient
people of Navajo, direct descendant of the
Dineh people who arrived in Alaska from
Central Asia, on foot through the Bering Straits
around 1200 before the Christian era.
The Navajo, however, waited until the 16th
century before descending from the north of
the American continent and settling in the
southwest.
By the 17th century, they had become a
pastoral people, with an economy based largely
on animal husbandry and hunting. During the
18th and 19th centuries, they came into conflict
with the Spanish and Mexican settlers. Their
contacts with the Spanish were limited but
important; the latter introduced horses, sheep
and goats, which became vital elements of the
Navajo economy.
In 1846, the Navajos concluded a first treaty
with the government of the United States, but
there were skirmishes with American troops in
1849 and repeated engagements until 1863.
That year, the Navajos were captured and sent
by foot to the Fort Sumner Reserve, New
Mexico. This deportation is known in Navajo
history as the "long march". By 1868, more than
2,000 of the 10,000 or so captives had already
died.
It is from this fearless people that the gaze of
the young Navajo youngster photographed by
Monsen seems to tell their story several
thousands of years old. From the top of this
gaze, as Napoleon would have said from the
top of the pyramids of Egypt, over 3000 years
of history contemplates the new Spanish,
English and Dutch peoples of the United
States!
Navajo spirituality based on the worship of
nature and harmony (hozho) is linked to
health, beauty, order and harmony. At the end
of the 20th century, there has been a noticeable
awakening of interest in their philosophy of
life..

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Doubt
Polidoro da Caravaggio 1527,
Study of an unknown man's head
Royal Collection UK
The Italian painter Polidoro di Caravaggio (1499-1543) - not to be confused with
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), known as "Caravaggio" - was not at
all intended for an artistic career but that of a mason. For a long time he was
responsible for carrying the shuttle (a container full of quicklime) during the
construction of the loggias of the pontifical palace in Rome. His innate sense of
drawing, which he practiced on the ground between two shuttles, ended up being
noticed by the brilliant artists who worked for the Pope and especially by the great
Raphael himself who immediately took him under his protection as a pupil .
Polidoro de Caravaggio began his work as a draftsman by making mostly portraits,
of children in particular and of strangers whom he met in the street, in hostels or in
brothels. Curiously, and his namesake the famous Le Caravage will do the same a
century later in his sacred paintings, Polidoro de Caravaggio's models are all thugs
... even outright villains, generally thieves, murderers, crooks or rapists ... or all four
at a once ! The two Caravaggios - this coincidence being all the more disturbing
since they could not have known one another - used these hoodlums as models
for their Christ, their St John the Baptist, their St Sebastian and other legendary
saints of the Roman Catholic Church! In his drawings, Polidoro excelled in
chiaroscuro and showed his attachment to the classical model. In 1527, the Sack of
Rome by the troops of Charles V pushed Polidoro to flee. He took refuge first in
Naples where he painted in the chapel of Sainte-Marie-des-Grâce, a particularly
well known Saint Peter inspired by a fisherman he had crossed on the port. Very
quickly Polidoro felt that he was not well enough recognized in Naples. He
embarked for Messina where he was highly considered and he set to work again.
Having become famous in Messina, he settled there… but not for long because
Tonio Calabrese, who was at the same time his servant, his model and his pupil
(but especially a rascally bastard!) assassinated him with a knife in order to rob him
of a large sum of money he had just received. Of Tonio Calabrese as a painter, we
do not know a single painting nor a single drawing! On the other hand concerning
Tonio Calabrese the model, it is most probable that it is he who is represented by
the head of the unknown man opposite, preserved in the collections of the Queen
of England. Doubt still remains today.
What a fate!

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Doubt
Herbert Ponting (1870-1935)
Patrick Keohane on return from the Barriers, 29 January 1912
The Royal Trust Collection
Collection of Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II
,
Serving as a ship's master Patrick Keohane
(1879-1950) was an Irish member of Robert
Falcon ScoM's legendary Antarc4c expedi4on
of 1910-1913, the Terra Nova expedi4on.
At 30, he was selected by Teddy Evans to join
the Terra Nova expedi4on to Antarc4ca
aboard the HMS Repulse. It was he who
during the trip to the South Pole led one of
the ponies which ScoM had embarked to the
foot of the Beardmore Glacier. He was then
part of the group of 12 men designated to go
in search of the pole. He was with Edward L.
Atkinson, Charles S. Wright and Apsley Cherry-
Garrard, those who arrived at 85 ° 15 'South
on December 22, 1911.
During the trip back to Cape Evans, Keohane
fell into crevices eight 4mes in 25 minutes
with his pony. They nevertheless managed to
reach Hut Point on January 26, 1912.
On March 27, 1912, Keohane, with Atkinson,
aMempted to locate ScoM and his group and
bring them back to Cape Evans. They could
only progress to a point 8 miles south of
Corner Camp. There they lea a week of
supplies and returned to Cape Evans.
On October 29, 1912, aaer having spent the
austral winter on the con4nent, Keohane and
his group set off in search of Robert Falcon
ScoM's group.
bodies of ScoM, Edward Adrian Wilson and
Henry Robertson Bowers 11 miles south of the
One Ton food depot. They decided to bring
back with them all the documents, statements
and watercolors that ScoM's team had
produced ...
It was at the precise moment of this gruelling
return, both physical and moral, that Herbert
Pon4ng, a great photographer and also an
important witness to the first polar
expedi4ons, decided to take the photo
opposite.
On January 22, 1913, a rare survivor of this
tragic and heroic expedi4on, Master Patrick
Keohane returned to Europe from Cape Evans
aboard the HMS Terra Nova. The ship arrived
in Wales on June 14, 1913.
Aaer his return, Keohane joined the Coast
Guard service and became the Isle of Man
coast guard district officer.
He then joined the Royal Navy and served
during the Second World War.
He died in Plymouth, England in 1950 at the
age of 71.

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Doubt
Glyn Warren Philpot, (1884-1937)
Tom Whiskey (M. Julien Zaire), 1931
Private collection (Sotheby's London)
The Bri4sh painter Glyn
Warren Philpot produced
several portraits en4tled Tom
Whiskey which, in reality,
represented Julien Zaïre, jazz
musician performing in
Parisian cabarets.
These portraits presented the
musician as an elegant man,
with a refined physique,
surrounded by all the
trappings of modernity
(gramophone, avant-garde
decor, etc.), signs which were
also linked to jazz which
landed in Europe at the end of
the First world War. These
portraits were presented for
the first 4me in 1932 in the
United Kingdom. One could
well say that they had the
effect of a bomb of exo4cism
and avant-garde in the
circumscribed universe of the
painters of the Royal Academy.
The images of a dancing Paris,
all elegance and refinement,
sowed doubt in the narrow
minds of the 4me. They
carried a strong message
which Philpot oaen repeated
in the rest of his work, that of
a Negritude synonymous with
beauty, elegance and
intelligence. A message that
may seem commonplace these
days but which was completely
revolu4onary in that era.
As for Julien Zaïre, hero of this
adventure although he did not
leave an imprint in the musical
world, we think that he arrived
from Mar4nique (exactly like
Joséphine Baker) in the wake
of the Revue Nègre presented
at the Théâtre des Champs
Elysées, in 1925.
What was then called the
Harlem Renaissance spread
through Paris like lightening
making the capital of France
nothing less than the world
capital of Jazz! The French,
with their desire to have fun
aaer the trying war years,
discovered, thanks to the
Americans, new dances like
the charleston. The districts of
Montmartre and the Champs-
Elysées hosted jazz clubs such
as Le Grand Duc, Le Boeuf sur
le toit, Le Théâtre des Champs-
Elysées and a mul4tude of
other small clubs opening and
closing according to trends. It
is undoubtedly in one of these
ephemeral bar-clubs that
Julien Zaïre performed, whose
,
name would quickly be
eclipsed by those more
pres4gious of Django
Reinhardt, Henri Salvador, or
Sidney Bechet…
Of Paris at that 4me,
nicknamed Paris of the "les
Annees Folles", Jean Cocteau
would say:
“The first 6me I heard jazz, I
pricked up the ears of a circus
horse. I recognized the music
so much desired ... "

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Doubt
Charles André́ van Loo (1705-1765)
Standing man,, 1742.
Collection privée
Charles André van Loo, known as Carle van Loo, was a French painter, son of the painter
Louis-Abraham van Loo and brother of the painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo (1684-1745). He had
a brilliant career and became immensely famous, under the protection of the Marquise de
Pompadour for whom he worked.
He is the best known member of the Van Loo dynasty, established in France since the 17th
century.
His technical mastery was certainly exceptional, and yet no other artist doubted his talents
more than he at this point, as even the model for the splendid engraving opposite seems to be
saying. Unsure of himself and poorly educated, he preferred to follow the advice of his friends
and allow himself to be more influenced by criticism than to take initiatives. Constantly
modifying his compositions, he did not hesitate to destroy some of his works. This was the
case, for example, for the first version of one of his most famous works today: The Three
Graces. We could perhaps find in this permanent doubting of his talent and his abilities an
explanation for the undeniable coldness of his most ambitious paintings, especially when we
compare them with his preparatory sketches.
Diderot says in his Notice on Carle Vanloo in 1765: “The first rogue confident enough to
spout nonsense was capable of destroying his faith in the most beautiful picture with silly
criticism; he spoiled more than one based on observations that often lacked common sense;
and by dint of changing, he got tired on his subject, and ended up with a bad composition,
after having erased an excellent one. "
Nowadays, however, we recognise that this permanent doubt which became a basis of his
creative process, even if it was not always used wisely, guaranteed Carle Van Loo a
considerable public success! In the 18th century, there was no equivalent to this phenomenon
of popular success before the craze for Jean-Baptiste Greuze's paintings or the heroic
propaganda paintings by Jacques-Louis David.
,

MEN PORTRAITS
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Le Doubt
Aaron Shikler (1922–2015)
Portrait of John F. Kennedy
Posthumous official presidential portrait, 1970
The White House.
,
Unlike the many portraits of the President sirng
behind his desk, Shikler's portrait represents the
35th President of the United States, J. F. Kennedy
(1917-1963), standing, arms crossed, eyes lowered,
his face obscured by doubt.
Behind this portrait there is a story.
Posthumous portrait, painted in 1971, therefore
almost ten years aaer Kennedy's death, this
achievement was closely supervised by the
president's widow, Jackie Onassis. On this subject in
1981, the painter Aaron Shikler declared to People
magazine: "The point that Jackie par6cularly
emphasized was that she didn't want him to look like
the usual portrait where we see him with bags under
his eyes and a penetra6ng regard. She said that she
was 6red of seeing this picture of him everywhere. "
Before making the first preparatory sketches, Shikler
consulted the important photographic background
devoted to the late president where he came across
an image represen4ng Ted Kennedy at the grave of
his brother. It is this one that he chose as a source of
inspira4on although the pain4ng requested was not
at all supposed to evoke the death of Kennedy.
According to People, as soon as Jackie saw this
sketch, it was her first choice among all the others.
"You could take inspira6on from this" she then
suggested.
In 1971 Shikler told the Washington Post:
"I followed her sugges6on all the more so
considering that it was also my first idea! And this is
how I painted the 35th president with his head
down, not because I considered him a martyr, but
because I wanted to show him as the thinking
president that he was in my eyes ... And a president
who thinks is a rare thing. "
And indeed this president who allowed the first man
to tread the soil of the moon and who opposed the
construc4on of the Berlin Wall, was a man who
obviously thought and thus one who doubted.
This portrait in the posi4on of the thinker in doubt
was not without cri4cism and according to the
Washington Post: "Many poli6cians wondered why
Shikler had chosen not to show the eyes of the
president". To which the painter replied: "All the
portraits of the president describe him looking the
spectator straight in the eyes as if to convince him to
vote for him! This is not what I wanted! I wanted
something more meaningful than an ordinary
elec6on poster! I wanted to try to show both this
man's courage and his humility in the face of the
task he had accomplished, as if he were s6ll
wondering if he had been right or wrong in making
such and such a decision ... "

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Doubt
Hans Leonard Schaüfelein (1480-1540)
Portrait of a Man (1507)
National Gallery, Washington
We know almost nothing about this pain4ng and its painter. Given such doubts, this allows us to
imagine anything we want!
According to the date wriMen on the top right and the AD monogram on the top lea, this
composi4on is by the great Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). And so it was believed to be for a long
4me ... at least un4l the billionaire and great American collector Andrew W. Mellon acquired it in
1928. By looking at this work and its invoice, experts came to the conclusion that if the support was
indeed from the beginning of the 16th century, the monogram and the date had probably been
added by hand later. Going further, they also concluded that the work was probably not from the
brush of Dürer himself but from his most loyal pupil and collaborator, Hans Leonard Schäufelein
(1480-1540) who worked in Dürer's workshop from 1504 to 1505 and was inspired over the long
term by his style. In reality the collector Andrew Mellon lost liMle in exchange, since in the art
market the works of Schäuflein demanded a price almost as important as the works of Dürer!
About Hans Leonhard Schäuffelin himself, we hardly know anything ... except that the spelling of his
name is very variable and fluctuates between Schauffele, Schäufelein, Schäuffelein, Scheifelin,
Schenfelein, Schenflein or Schoyffelin. We also know that he was certainly the pupil of Albrecht
Dürer, whose style greatly inspired him throughout his life and on which he built his en4re career.
The date affixed on the pain4ng later also sows doubt, because in 1507 we know that Schaufelein
had just lea Nuremberg to go to Augsburg where he worked with Hans Holbein the Elder. From this
4me on Schäufelein signed his works with the combina4on of his ligature monogram and a small
shovel (Schaufel in German) and certainly not the monogram of his master AD. Schäufelein's very
first dated and authen4cated pain4ng with his monogram did not appear un4l 1508.
The personage represented remains a total mystery. It was thought for a 4me that it could have
been the painter himself or a portrait of his son Hans Schäuffelin , the Younger (1515-1582), who
was also a painter but was born 8 years aaer this portrait, or even Albrecht Dürer who loved to
paint and be painted… but neither of these solu4ons has ever been validated by experts.
Here, the doubt therefore remains intact!

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Doubt
Jean Grandjean (1752-1781).
Study of a man's head,, 1780
Oil on canvas,
Collection privée
douBT : positive oR négative ATTITUDE ?
For Socrates (-470 / -399) doubt is synonymous with criticism and questioning of everything that presents itself as
definitive knowledge.
For skeptical philosophers like Pyrrhon d'Elis (-360 / -270) or Timon de Philionte, doubt is an attitude of expectation,
of suspense: indeed if we consider the precariousness of the human condition, it is preferable not to assert anything
with certainty but on the contrary to doubt everything.
For Descartes (1596-1650), radical doubt serves to avoid being be fooled by opinions or false knowledge; it is a method
which hopes to purge us of our illusions, and to reach, if not the truth itself in any case something approaching it.
For Kant (1724-1804), doubt is necessary for the progress of humanity. Doubt is THE source of the Enlightenment.
And for you ?

MPS
MEN PORTRAITS SERIES
n°2
English text
That’s it…
For the moment …
Because with MPS
nothing ever ends…
Surprises from the blog
will soon enhance these
thematic series…
menportraits.blogspot.com
© Francis Rousseau 2011-2020
Transla4on : Anne Menuhin