[Sure looks like young Johnny Depp to me... sh] The painting Le Désespéré is a self portrait of artist Gustave Courbet as a young man in despair. The artist’s close-up shows the eyes wide open that plunge into the viewer. Painted with lots of contrasts, the character seems to leap of the canvas. It remains unclear whether the despair depicted in the painting was the artist’s current emotion or a mere theoretical exercise. Portraits of the time were traditionally vertical, but Courbet has chosen to use a landscape orientation for his painting. It is believed that he was particularly keen on this piece, since he took it with him in to exile in Switzerland. (http://www.widewalls.ch/famous-self-portraits/gustave-courbet-le-desespere-1845/) ...this piece by Courbet remains his most well-known self portrait. Completed in 1845, The Desperate Man combines elements of Romanticism—a style that was prominent until the middle of the 19th century— [https://mymodernmet.com/famous-self-portraits]