Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Sold by the artist to Etienne-François Haro (1827-1897), Paris (L.1241), 13 October 1866,

Sold by Haro after Ingres' death, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 7 May 1867, lot 74 (Me Pillet);

with R.W.P. de Vries, Amsterdam, Dessins de Maîtres anciens et modernes, (part I), 1929, no. 128;

with Galerie 35-37, Paris, by 1983;

Private Collection, Switzerland,

sale, Geneva, Pierre Bergé & Associés, 23 November 2003, lot 1

Paris, Ecole impériale des beaux-arts, Catalogue des tableaux, études peintes, dessins et croquis de J.-A.-D. Ingres, peintre d’histoire, sénateur, membre de l’institut exposés dans les galeries du palais de l’école impériale des beaux-arts, 1867, no. 221

The present drawing is a study for the allegorical representation of Rome, one of eight major European cities conquered by Napoleon that were to be depicted surrounding Ingres' large painting of the Apotheosis of Napoleon I, painted in 1853 for the ceiling of the Salon de l'Empereur at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris.

Though Ingres entrusted the task of painting the representations of each of these cities (Rome, Vienna, Milan, Naples, Moscow, Cairo, Berlin and Madrid) to eight of his finest students: the Balze brothers, Cambon, Magimel, Desgoffe, Paul Flandrin, Pichon, and Cornu, he did provide the preparatory drawings for all of these allegories, of which the present work and lot 169 (depicting the city of Moscow) are particularly fine examples.

Given that the Hôtel de Ville was destroyed by fire during the insurrection of the Commune in 1871, these drawings, as well as a number that relate to the Apotheosis of Napoleon I, are key surviving records of this important project for Ingres. Other drawings relating to the eight cities are in the collection of the Musée Ingres at Montauban, including a squared sheet for the figure of Moscow¹ and nude study for the figure of Rome.²

The drawing bears the collector's mark of the painter, restorer, art dealer, student and close friend of Ingres', Etienne-François Haro, known as Haro père. Shortly before his death, Ingres sold 31 painted sketches and more than forty drawings to Haro for 50.000 Francs. This collection formed part of the Ingres sale which was held upon the death of the artist on 6 and 7 May 1867, which fetched more than 128.000 Francs and included seven of the eight studies of cities conquered by Napoleon I, with only Naples absent (see Provenance).

^1.Montauban, Musée Ingres, inv. no. 70 F13 SP

^2.Montauban, Musée Ingres, inv. no. 63 F13 SP