Theobald CHARTRAN ✿

Théobald Chartran (Besançon, 1849 – Neuilly sur Seine, 1907) was a classical French academic painter and portrait artist. He studied at the Lycée Victor-Hugo in Besançon before heading to Paris in order to devote himself entirely to the study of art under Alexandre Cabanel, later attending the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

 Gabrielle Réjane as a young actress, 1884

As "T", he was one of the artists responsible for occasional caricatures of Vanity Fair magazine, specializing in French and Italian subjects. His work for Vanity Fair included Pope Leo XIII, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Umberto I of Italy, William Henry Waddington, all in 1878, Charles Gounod, Giuseppe Verdi, Ernest Renan, Jules Grévy, Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, Victor Hugo, Marshal MacMahon, Granier de Cassagnac, Louis Blanc, and Alexandre Dumas fils, all in 1879.

Emma Calvé, as Carmen of Bizet, 1894

Sarah Bernhardt as Gismonda, 1894

James Hazen Hyde (1876-1959), 1901

Portrait of a gentleman, full length, seated with his dog and holding a newspaper, 1883

James Hazen Hyde (1876-1959), 1901

Portrait of Elizabeth Alvina Hyde, 1895

Official portrait of First Lady Edith Roosevelt, 1902

Portrait of Madame Collas and her daughter Giselle, 1903

Sainte Cécile

Venice (1880-1900)

Odalisque, 1872

Priam demandant à Achille le corps d'Hector, 1876

La joueuse de mandore, 1879

The chibouk smoker, 1877

Portrait of a Young Girl In a Winter Coat New York , 1899

President Theodore Roosevelt's official portrait was originally commissioned to Théobald Chartran in 1902, but when Roosevelt saw the final product he hated it and hid it in the darkest corner of the White House. When family members called it the "Mewing Cat" for making him look so harmless, he had it destroyed and hired John Singer Sargent to paint a more masculine portrait. Among Chartran's work is his portrait of René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec, the inventor of the stethoscope.