3-075-220 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

A Portrait of Dr. François-Marie Desmaisons, c.between 1832 and 1833 Eugène Delacroix presents his sitter, the physician François-Marie Desmaisons, silhouetted against a stormy sky. The gathering clouds, shot through with only glimmers of light, may reflect Desmaisons’s contemplative mood. The doctor looks off to left, as if absorbed in serious thought. So unaware is he of the viewer’s gaze that he hooks his right thumb into the armhole of his waistcoat with a casual, private gesture, as if he is alone. Desmaisons must have been fond of this likeness, which he presented to his mother and then retained after her death..