Idbury Prints: An online gallery of original fine art prints

MARCELLIN DESBOUTIN (French / 1823-1901)

Marcellin Gilbert Desboutin was born in Cérilly, and died in Nice; his first name is sometimes spelled Marcelin, and sometimes Marcellin. Desboutin specialized in portrait drypoints, usually of fellow artists, such as his friends Degas and Renoir. He also made interpretative etchings after the work of others, such as our etching after Jozef Israëls. Desboutin achieved some fame and success as an artist, but he is now remembered as a rather untidy and Bohemian figure on the fringes of Impressionism (he exhibited at the Second Impressionist Exhibition), and in particular for his appearance as the dishevelled absinthe drinker in Degas' canvas L'Absinthe (Dans un café). Desboutin appears, often smoking a pipe, in paintings by other artists, including Manet and Alexandre Falguière. Marcellin Desboutin spent the years 1854-1870 living and working in Florence, where he met and encouraged Giuseppe de Nittis. See Clément-Janin, La curieuse vie de Marcellin Desboutin, peintre, graveur, poète, 1922.