Lot 121
  • 121

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
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Description

  • Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
  • Jupiter and Thetis
  • Watercolor heightened with white, over traces of graphite;
    signed, lower left: par Ingres

Provenance

Private Collection, France;
sale, Paris, Etude Me Auday, 14 June 1989, lot 12,
purchased at the above sale by the late owner



Literature

A. Dückers, Linie, Licht und Schatten, Meisterzeichnungen und Skulpturen der Sammlung Jan und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, Berlin 1999, p. 144, under no. 65

Condition

Hinge mounted to a modern mount at its four corners. The sheet has yellowed quite significantly and there are some light abrasions to the four corners and the centre left edge. The combination of mediums remains reasonably fresh throughout this iconic image. Sold in a modern giltwood 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

This drawing is a highly important compositional study for Ingres’ iconic and monumental painting of Jupiter and Thetis, now in the Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence (fig. 1), which the artist first conceived at the end of 1806, immediately following his arrival in Rome, but finally dispatched back to France only in 1811.  On its arrival in Paris, Ingres’ painting, with its extraordinary, stylized lighting, sensual yet unnatural anatomy and dramatic composition, caused a huge stir, and seriously unnerved the artist’s former teacher, Jacques-Louis David, who on seeing the picture observed: “I no longer know how to paint.”1

Although the dramatic frontality of the Jupiter and Thetis is in some ways a natural progression from Ingres’ ground-breaking 1806 depiction of Napoleon seated on his Imperial Throne, housed in the Musée de l’Armée, Paris (fig. 2), the dramatic contrast with the attenuated, smooth-skinned figure of Thetis was something entirely new, and the five-year delay in completing the picture clearly indicates how hard Ingres worked in arriving at his final solution.  This creative process is well documented through a series of notes and some fifteen studies in the Musée Ingres, Montauban,2 but of those other drawings, none come close to representing the final composition of the painting as effectively as the present work.  Indeed the function that these other drawings served in the project is very different to that of the present work and whilst the Montauban drawings demonstrate the artist’s focus on specific figures and poses in preparation for the finished painting, our drawing offers the artist’s complete solution for the composition, making it undoubtedly the most complete drawing known to exist for this, now iconic, commission.

Ingres’ use of watercolor in the present work also helps to separate it on a more technical level from the aforementioned drawings at Montauban relating to the Jupiter and Thetis project, all of which are executed in either lead or chalk.  Parallels can instead be drawn between our work and another highly impressive and iconic work on paper, sold in these rooms in 2014,3 depicting Napoleon seated on his Imperial Throne, in which Ingres has also incorporated colored washes to heighten the level of finish in the drawing.

1. See P. Mesplé, ‘David et ses élèves toulousains,’ Archives d’Art Français, vol. XXIV, 1969, p. 99

2. G. Vigne, Dessins d'Ingres. Catalogue raisonné des dessins du Musée de Montauban, Paris, 1995, pp. 20-23, nos. 20-36.

3. Sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 July 2014, lot 97