Portrait of Henri Rochefort

In 1880 an amnesty for the Communards let Henri Rochefort come home to Paris. He was a polemical journalist, nicknamed the man of 20 duels and 30 lawsuits, and after the Commune he had been deported to the penal colony in New Caledonia, then escaped to Australia. Back in Paris, he sat for two painters within a short time. Manet showed a portrait of him at the Salon of 1881, and neither the critics nor the sitter liked it. Boldini's version, painted around 1882, went straight into the journalist's own collection. It is quick and close, only head and shoulders against a dark ground brushed in fast diagonal strokes. The grey hair stands up, the goatee juts, and the eyes slide away to one side. The French State bought the portrait in 1946.