Marcellin Desboutin

Marcellin Desboutin was born in 1823. He lived in a life of wealth in Florence until 1971 when he claimed to have gambled away a castle in Italy. He then lived as a penniless, but aristocratic bohemian in Paris.

The most memorable of Desboutin’s works are a series of drypoint portraits of his friends and other well-known figures. His prints were made at the studio of Cadart in Paris. They were usually editions of about twenty, therefore they are now relatively scarce.