Artwork

Self-portrait with Daughters Henriette Joyard and Marie de Rège in front of the easel

Self-portrait with Daughters Henriette Joyard and Marie de Rège in front of the easel is an oil painting by the Rococo painting artist Antoine Pesne. It dates from 1754 and is held in the collection of the Gemäldegalerie Berlin.

About this work

Subject & Meaning

The composition unites a self-portrait with a multi-figure family group, foregrounding both Pesne's professional identity as a painter and his role as a father.

Antoine Pesne's 1754 oil painting presents a family portrait in which the artist appears alongside his two daughters, Henriette Joyard and Marie de Rège. The composition unites a self-portrait with a multi-figure family group, foregrounding both Pesne's professional identity as a painter and his role as a father. By depicting himself in front of the easel with his children, Pesne links his artistic practice to his domestic life, presenting the family as an extension of the creative self.

The work thus functions simultaneously as a self-representation, a record of kinship, and a statement of professional pride, with the easel serving as the iconographic anchor that ties personal identity to artistic vocation.

The painting's meaning centers on this fusion of authorship and parenthood: the daughters are not merely sitters but co-subjects of the artist's self-fashioning, while the easel signals that the portrait itself is a product of the hand shown beside it. Held in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin, the canvas operates as both an intimate family document and a constructed image of the painter at work.

Technique & Style

The work is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard combination for mid-eighteenth-century European portraiture. Its dimensions are recorded as 179.4 cm in height by 151.2 cm in width, indicating a large-scale, upright format suited to a full-length family composition.

Stylistically, the painting functions as both a self-portrait and a family portrait, combining the artist's presentation of himself at work with depictions of his daughters, Henriette Joyard and Marie de Rège. The inclusion of the easel situates the work within the tradition of the artist-at-work portrait, a self-conscious device that emphasizes the painter's professional identity alongside his domestic role.

History & Provenance

The self‑portrait with daughters Henriette Joyard and Marie de Rège was painted by Antoine Pesne in 1754, executed in oil on canvas. According to the available sources, the work is presently held in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin, where it constitutes part of the museum’s collection. No earlier ownership, commission, or provenance details are supplied in the referenced material.

Antoine Pesne's 1754 oil painting, Self-portrait with Daughters Henriette Joyard and Marie de Rège in front of the easel, is held in the collection of the Gemäldegalerie Berlin. The work is cataloged within the museum's holdings as a self-portrait and family portrait depicting the artist alongside his two daughters. While the painting is confirmed to be part of the Gemäldegalerie Berlin's permanent collection, the provided sources do not specify a unique inventory or accession number for the piece. Furthermore, the available documentation does not record any specific exhibition history for this artwork.

Overview

Antoine Pesne's oil painting 'Self-portrait with Daughters Henriette Joyard and Marie de Rège in front of the easel' was created in 1754. It is a portrait of the artist with two female figures, held at the Gemäldegalerie Berlin.