This striking portrait of a man by Honoré Daumier has impressive provenance. One of its first owners was the great collects or of Modern art, Alphonse Kann, who eventually sold it to Dikran Khan Kélékian. Later it belonged to Walter Percy Chrysler, Jr., son of the founder of Chrysler Corporation, and a great collects or of the avant-garde. The present painting has not appeared at auction in over 60 years.
“He has everything: a generous touch, draughtsmanship, color, ideas…Such pictures seem to have been sketched by Michelangelo and painted by Delacroix.”
- FOUCHER, QUOTED IN DAUMIER, EXH, CAT., OTTAWA, 1999, P. 64