The sitter is the French composer Clément Jules Broutin (Orchies, 1851 – 1889). In 1878, the date noted in the inscription above (12 M 1878), Broutin won the first Grand Prix de Rome with the three-part opera La Fille de Jephté based on a text by his friend Édouard Guinand, and thus taking up residence at the Académie de France at Villa Medici in Rome. It is indicative that in 1878, the author of the portrait, the famous French painter François Schommer, also won first prize in the Grand Prix de Rome for his work César-Auguste au tombeau d'Alexandre.

The year 1878 therefore seems to have been one of great success for both men. The names of the two winners appeared in the catalogue of the Liste des Pensionnaires (Fig. 1). It seems highly likely that the two met during this scholarship spent at Villa Medici. 

 

During his stay at Villa Medici in Rome, Broutin composed Sinai, a work for choir of soloists and orchestra, which was premiered in 1881 in the hall of the Paris Conservatoire.  (Fig. 2)

 

Fig. 2 - A letter that Broutin wrote to his friend, the poet Edouard Guinand, while he was at Villa Medici. The letter, dated December 27 1879, speaks of the difficulty he was having in composing Sinai.

 

For this reason, on November 31 1880, Broutin was compelled to leave Rome and return to Paris, while Schommer remained in Rome until 1882.

The portrait presented here, dated 1880, was most likely painted on this occasion: perhaps a gift that the French painter gave to his composer friend on the eve of his return to France.

Known mainly as a painter of history and genre scenes, in this portrait Schommer shows all of his mastery: the refined rendering of the facial features, the accuracy with which he executes the details of the matted beard, the way in which the light sculpts and smooths the fair skin and slightly reddened cheeks of the young Clément. While the clothes are only hinted at, all the attention and care of the painter was directed to the subject’s face, the intense and melancholic look that reveals the musician’s extreme sensitivity.

 

François Schommer is considered a "great artist" by the Album Mariani[1]  and the Revue de l'Art, which noted that Schommer "is a man of refined culture and whose friends for half a century have been among the elite of academic art and Parisian society".[2]The artist had a successful career: he became a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1910, and a member of the Institute of France in 1924. His works can be admired at the Musée de l'Armée and at the Musée d'Orsay. He also decorated the ceilings of the Sorbonne, the City Hall of Tours and Roubaix, those of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Institut de France. He also created two panels, Alceste and Rodrigue, for the foyer of the Théâtre de l'Odéon. He was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1890 and later promoted to Officer.