Portrait – Henning Malmström

Attributed to: Henning Malmström
Date: Late 19th Century (Circa 1870–1895)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 22.5 x 27.5 inches (Including Frame)

Unlike his earlier graphic woodcuts, which relied on sharp black-and-white contrasts, his 1960s paintings use a rich, earthy palette to build the subject’s face through planes of color and bold, decisive lines. The face is characterized by a strong, dignified expression, common in Jonynas’ portraits of his contemporaries within the Lithuanian intellectual exile community in New York. The composition focuses intently on the subject’s head and shoulders, using a technique Jonynas called a “symphony of form”—where the physical features of the sitter are harmonized with the structural geometry of the background.

The artwork is housed in a beautiful distressed gilt frame, which provides a rich, historical weight to the piece. Corot’s work from this era often focuses on the “poetry of the landscape,” treating the sea not as a violent force, but as a tranquil, moody backdrop for human reflection. In pieces of this scale, the horizon line is typically set low to emphasize the expansive, atmospheric sky, a technique that heavily influenced younger artists like Monet and Pissarro.