Portrait of Armand Carrel

Hendrik Scheffer's Portrait of Armand Carrel (1833) commemorates one of the most combative liberal journalists of the July Monarchy — Armand Carrel was editor of Le National, a leading republican newspaper, killed in a duel in 1836. Painted three years before his death, this portrait captures a man at the height of his influence and notoriety. Scheffer, a liberal himself with connections to the Orléanist court, brought genuine sympathy to the portrait. It now hangs in the Musée Carnavalet, Paris's museum of city history, as a document of French liberal intellectual culture in the 1830s.

Scheffer presents Carrel in three-quarter format with a direct, assured gaze that suits the subject's combative public reputation. The palette is restrained — dark coat, pale cravat, neutral ground — focusing all attention on the face. Brushwork is confident and fluid in the face and hair, with broad, loosely handled passages in the clothing.