Portrait of Professor Georges Bohn

Georges Bohn (1868–1948) was a French naturalist, Doctor of Medicine and Natural Sciences, the director of the laboratory at the Sorbonne. He specialised in animal physiology, chiefly marine life, researching their behavioural mechanisms activated by environmental stimuli. His works, including La nouvelle psychologie animale, situate him among the precursors of comparative psychology and early ethology.

The face of the portrayed man is one of a naturally-born precursor. The scientist’s eyes are half-closed, there is a glimmer of smile on his lips. The colours on his face harmonise with the other elements – the suit in a similar tone and the brown wall. He takes a “lecturer’s pose” – his hands lightly clasped, he is relaxed and seated to face the viewer, ready to speak. It is only his dark hairline, out of focus, that distinguishes his face from the rest of the painting. Gottlieb did not attempt to psychologise his model – as a psychologist-portraitist, he must have held Bohn’s scientific work in considerable respect.