Lot 189
  • 189

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
  • Portrait of Jean Racine, Full Length, Standing in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles
  • Pencil and brown wash;
    signed and dated in pencil, lower right: J. Ingres 1845

Provenance

Auguste Jacobe de Naurois,
by descent to his son, Albert Jacobe de Naurois;
with Kunsthandel Thomas le Claire, Hamburg;
sale, Paris, Piasa, 26 March 2003, lot 103

Literature

E. Mennechet, Le Plutarque français, vies des hommes et des femmes illustres de la France depuis le cinquième siècle jusqu'a nos jours, avec leurs portraits en pied gravés sur acier, Paris 1846, 6 vols.

Condition

Hinged to mount at the upper margin. Overall in good condition. Some faint staining at the left margin. A small repaired hole located near the lower right corner. Otherwise medium still strong. Sold in a carved and gilded frame
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.

Catalogue Note

Between 1843 and 1846 Ingres provided Édoaurd Mennechet’s publication, Le Plutarque français with six separate designs portraying celebrated figures from French history, to serve as frontispieces to their corresponding biographies within the publication.  The present work, a full-length portrait of the celebrated 17th-century dramatist and playwright, Jean Racine, featured alongside depictions by Ingres of Joan of Arc, Jean de La Fontaine, Eustache Le Sueur, Molière and Nicolas Poussin.

This exceptionally refined, highly finished drawing is one of three studies by Ingres that can be associated with the portrait of Racine for this project, the other two of which are in the Musée de Montauban.1  Compositionally, the Riklis drawing is most closely linked to the second of these Montauban studies, in which Ingres also shows Racine with a sword, a detail notably absent from the other drawing.

The level of finish seen here is, however, higher than in either of the two Montauban studies, with Ingres progressing from the black chalk he so often uses for his preparatory works into graphite, thus enabling him to create a sensitive and accurate portrayal of Racine, while also generating the superbly precise and detailed lines required for the architectural and perspectival elements that are so important to his composition.

Ingres has chosen to portray Racine in the magnificent Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, a particularly inspired choice of setting given that Racine, along with the poet Nicolas Boileau, was responsible for the texts that accompany Charles Le Brun’s celebrated series of paintings in the Hall - a monumental homage to Louis XIV and his military victories in the Dutch Wars of the 1660s and '70s. 

1. Inv. nos. 867.2643 and 867.2644; G. Vigne, Dessins d'Ingres, Catalogue raisonné des dessins du musée de Montauban, Paris 1995, pp. 430-31, nos. 2437 & 2438, reproduced