Lot 97: c - JOHN LONGSTAFF , Australian 1862-1941 SELF-PORTRAIT Oil on canvas

Signed upper right; inscribed 'mon ami Barlow' upper left; bears the name Barlow on the stretcher Oil on canvas

43 by 33 cm

Private collection, United Kingdom

This dashing keepsake self-portrait is dedicated to 'mon ami Barlow'. The Barlow in question is probably the British landscape painter John Noble Barlow (1861-1917). Like Longstaff, Barlow was part of the expatriate Anglophone art student community in late 19th-century Paris - Barlow studied at the Académie Julien, Longstaff at Corman's. Although Barlow was in the United States when Longstaff first arrived in Paris, he returned to Europe in 1889, before moving back across the Channel to St Ives in 1892. It therefore seems likely the two met in Paris at this time, when both were in their late twenties and beginning to establish their respective professional reputations. The evidence of history, of Longstaff's artistic style and of the French-language inscription permit a dating to circa 1889-92.