Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Varcollier collection (and sold: his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 14, 1866, lot 20, with incorrect dimensions)
Basilewski collection (by 1870)
Étienne-Edmond Martin, 2nd Baron de Beurnonville (and sold: his sale, 3 Rue Bayard, Paris, June 3, 1884 and days following, lot 397)
Jean-Constant-Denis-James-Edmond Borthon, Dijon
d'Hotelons collection (acquired by descent from the above)
Mrs. Joseph Kerrigan, née Esther Slater (and sold: her sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, January 8-10, 1942, lot 50, illustrated)
Baron Jean Germain Léon Cassel van Doorn, Englewood, New Jersey (and sold: his estate sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, December 9-10, 1955, lot 299)
Wildenstein collection (by 1962)
Private Collection

London, Wildenstein, Religious Themes in Painting from the 14th Century Onwards, March 16-May 5, 1962, no. 47
New York, Wildenstein, Consulat, Empire, Restauration: Art in Early XIX Century France, April 21-May 28, 1982

Henri Delaborde, Ingres, sa vie, ses traveaux, sa doctrine, d'après les notes manuscrites et les lettres du maître, Paris, 1870, p. 185, no. 17
Journal des Arts, September 19, 1884, p. 2
Catalogue des tableaux et objets d'art de la collection Borthon, Dijon, 1890, pp. 33-4, no. 43
Georges Wildenstein, Ingres, New York, 1954, p. 204, no. 202 (with incorrect dimensions), illustrated p. 207, fig. 131
Georges Wildenstein, Ingres (2nd, revised edition), London, 1956, p. 204, no. 202, illustrated p. 207, fig. 131
Ingres, exh. cat., Petit Palais, Paris, 1967-1968, p. 228, cited under no. 161; p. 230, cited under no. 169
Emilio Radius and Ettore Camesasca, L'Opera completa di Ingres, Milan, 1968, p. 107, no. 127b, illustrated
Daniel Ternois and Ettore Camesasca, Tout l'oeuvre peint d'Ingres, Paris, 1971, p. 107, no. 128b, illustrated
Jacques Foucart, "L'Ingrisme dans le monde (1976)," Bulletin du Musée d'Ingres, no. 41, July, 1978, p. 25 
Marjorie B. Cohn and Susan L. Siegfried, Works by J.-A.-D. Ingres in the collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachussetts, 1980, p. 94, cited under no. 31
Daniel Ternois, Ingres (French ed.), Milan, 1980, p. 79, 182, no. 225, illustrated
Patricia Condon, In pursuit of Perfection: The Art of J.-A.-D. Ingres, exh. cat, The J.B. Speed Art Museum, and traveling, Louisville, Kentucky, 1983-1984, p. 242, 247, 248, 253
Uwe Westfehling, Köln: Meisterzeichnungen von Leonardo bis zu Rodin, Wallraf-Richartz-Muzeum, Cologne, 1986, p. 188, note 5
Annalisa Zanni, Ingres: catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence, 1990, p. 149
Christine Ekelhart-Reinwetter, J.A.D. Ingres, 1780-1867: Ziechnungen und Ölstudien aus dem Musée Ingres, Montauban, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, and traveling, Innsbruck, 1991, pp. 204, note 5; 205; 206, note 1; 217, note 1, illustrated p. 218, fig. 94
Georges Vigne, Le Retour à Rome de Monsieur Ingres: dessins et peintures, Académie de France, and traveling, Rome, 1993-1994, p. 176, cited under no. 61; p. 214, under no. 83
Georges Vigne, assisted by Éric Moinet Montauban, Papiers d'Ingres: Vierges folles et vierges sages (exh. cat.), Musée Ingres and Orléans, Musée des Beaux-Arts,1992-1993, p. 2, 4, cited under no. 11; 20, note 3
Georges Vigne, Dessins d'Ingres: catalogue raisonné des dessins du musée de Montauban, Paris, 1995, p. 102, 104, 106, 108, illustrated p. 102
Georges Vigne, Ingres, Paris, 1995, p. 192-3, 334
John Goodrich, "Neo-classicism to Barbizon...," Review: The State of Critical Art in New York, V, no. 3, October 15, 1999, p. 35-6

This painting has been lined. Under UV, small spots of inpainting fluoresce in the sky.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This work is Ingres's modello for the large painting commissioned in 1824 by the French Royal Ministry of the Interior for the cathedral in the Burgundian town of Autun. Ingres based the composition on an iconographic program devised by the bishop of that town, Monseigneur Roch-Etienne de Vichy.

Symphorian, a native of Autun (Augustodonum in Latin) in the Roman province of Gaul, lived during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and was the son of Faustus, a local senator who had converted to Christianity. The young Symphorian was instructed in the tenets of the new religion by SS. Benignus, Andochius and Thyrsus, disciples of St. Polycarp and his faith was so strong that he openly mocked the pagan rites of the Romans, for which he was repeatedly punished by the governor of the region, Heraclius. Having refused to prostrate himself before the statue of a local deity, Berecynth, Symphorian was condemned to death by decapitation. According to Monseigneur de Vichy's account (translated from the French):

"The moment chosen is that in which the young Symphorian, dragged outside the city walls by the governor's henchmen and executioners, is led to the temple of Berecynth to sacrifice to the idols or to be put to death... His mother, nearby from the height of the city walls, urges him to suffer with courage the torture being prepared for him and reminds him of the immortal reward that God reserves for him in heaven.... The young martyr turns towards his mother to tell her a last goodbye, and shows her that his heart, strengthened by faith, is ready to endure torture and death, and that he is anxious to seal the Gospel of Jesus Christ with his blood."

It took Ingres several years of painstaking labor to work out the details of his complex composition. He had agreed to finish the painting in time for its inclusion in the 1827 Paris Salon; when that date arrived, however, he had only completed the present modello. He finished it in 1834, at which time it was shown at the Salon. The following year, The Martyrdom of St. Symphorian was placed in the cathedral at Autun.