Faces of Artists

About the Exhibition

This special exhibition, themed around the artist's face, is built around self-portraits and portraits of artists drawn from the Petit Palais's collection. It is conceived to re-examine the significance of artist portraits, a major collecting focus for the Petit Palais since its founding, presenting an art-historical exploration of artists' self-expression, social status, and identity formation. Featured artists include Grete Alt, Claude Monet, Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, and Joan Neesmith, with representative works including 'Self-Portrait,' 'Portrait of Grete Alt,' 'Monet's Family Portrait,' 'Bacon's Self-Portrait,' 'Portrait of Bourgeois's Parents,' and 'Neesmith's Self-Portrait Leaving Herself.' The exhibition presents around 50 works from the 19th century to the present, organized into the sections 'Self-Portrait and Self-Exploration,' 'The Face of Others and the Artist,' and 'Contemporary Self-Expression.' Visitors can glimpse artists' identity and self-reflection through how they viewed themselves and depicted others, with Monet's family portrait and Bacon's self-portrait in particular drawing attention as key highlights.