Amable Paul Coutan

Window mounted. Remains of old backing adhering to right edge, verso. Some light staining, especially towards left, but generally good condition.
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See lot 673.

Charlotte-Madeleine Taurel, named after Ingres' wife, was born in Rome in 1820. This portrait by Amable Coutan, drawn in Rome in 1821, was engraved and summarily described by Charles Eduard Taurel, her younger brother, in l'Album T (a copy of which is also included in this lot – see below). According to that text, she is portrayed with 'le fidèle Triem son grand chien'. In the background are the Villa Medici, where the French Academy was housed, and the city of Rome with the cupola of St. Peter's. The dog Trim was the self-same animal with which her mother had been portrayed by Ingres five years earlier.¹

Unfortunately Charlotte suffered from physical and mental illness, signs of which can also be detected in the moving portrait Ingres made of her circa 1825, clinging to a sheep (Musée du Louvre, Paris).² In the summer of 1829 her mother Henriette Taurel-Thévenin took her, with her brother Charles-Eduard, to Paris. From a letter that Ingres wrote to Calamatta, then in Rome, we know that the three stayed with Ingres and his wife, and that discussions were taking place regarding how to care for poor Charlotte.  She was entrusted to 'Les Dames du Sacré-Coeur' for specialized medical treatment, but clearly her condition was very bad, and she died soon after. Taurel and Calamatta travelled from Amsterdam to Paris to attend the funeral in Montparnasse, on 16 February 1830. This must surely have been the moment when Ingres gave the Taurels the double portrait of his wife Madeleine, godmother of the deceased girl, and himself.³

About Amable-Paul Coutan not much is known, except that he won the Prix de Rome in 1820. In L'Album T, Charles-Eduard Taurel states only that he did not leave many works and died young.  This drawing, superbly refined and with a very specific aesthetic, is, however, a significant monument not only to the abilities of this little-known artist, but also to the extent that Ingres' unique portrait vision defined the whole image of the French in Rome in the early 19th century, and French portrait drawing in general.  

A copy of L'Album T is included in this lot.  The album, which contains an engraving after the present drawing, was printed in 125 copies in 1885 and was meant as a lasting souvenir of the Album which the artists had given to A.B. Taurel and Henriette Thévenin at their wedding in Rome.  In 1859 the original drawings from this wedding album were dispersed, and as a memoir engravings after the most important, including the three Ingres portraits, were made, combined with family anecdotes regarding friends in Rome and a facsimile of an Ingres letter. This extremely important source of information concerning Ingres and his immediate circle is extensively described by Naef.⁴  

1. H. Naef, Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres, Bern 1977, vol. 2, pp. 215-216
2. See Naef, op. cit., cat. 294, and Portraits by Ingres. Image of an Epoch, exhib. cat., London/New York/Washington 1999-2000, no. 102
3. Private Collection, New York; see Portraits by Ingres, no. 108
4. Naef, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 216-222