Self-Portrait

A close friend and follower of Georges Seurat and a founding member of the Neo-Impressionist movement, Angrand was a master of Conté crayon, preferring to work in its limited palette of black, white, and gray. Here Angrand presents himself, not at all as an artist, but as a bourgeois dandy, impeccably dressed and smoking a cigar. Angrand’s technical ability in this self-portrait is stunning. In the words of an early critic, Angrand’s image seems to emerge from a “luminous mist.” Fellow Neo-Impressionist Paul Signac praised Angrand's crayon drawings: "his drawings are masterpieces. It would be impossible to imagine a better use of white and black. These are the most beautiful drawings, poems of light, of fine composition and execution." Many of the Neo-Impressionists were friends, as evidenced by the numerous extant Conté crayon depictions they made of themselves and of one another.