Jean Auguste Dominique INGRES (Montauban 1780 - Paris 1867) - Lot 52

Lot n° 52
Go to lot
Estimation :
8000 - 12000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 12 236EUR
Jean Auguste Dominique INGRES (Montauban 1780 - Paris 1867) - Lot 52
Jean Auguste Dominique INGRES (Montauban 1780 - Paris 1867) Study for Venus at Paphos Black pencil, squared off. 27.5 x 18.5 cm Bears the studio stamp (Lugt n° 1477). Provenance : Anonymous sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, November 25, 1998, (Mes Rieunier et Bailly - Pommery), no. 13, reproduced. Our drawing is a study for the painting La Vénus à Paphos painted by Ingres around 1852 and kept at the Musée d'Orsay since 1981. While the ancient temple and the little Cupid confirm that this is indeed a Venus, the subject and genesis of the painting are not without question. Ingres himself mentions in one of his notebooks "Ebauche pour une Vénus portrait- tableau", underlining the word portrait. The landscape, meanwhile, was painted by Alexandre Desgoffe, a former pupil and later collaborator of Ingres. The face of this Venus is indeed that of a lady of good society, Antonie Balaÿ, daughter of a wealthy parliamentarian. Is this a portrait whose commission was cancelled and which Ingres transformed into a Venus? This hypothesis would explain the hybrid aspect of this composition. According to another version, Ingres used a portrait of Antonie Balaÿ by Paul Flandrin, kept at the Musée des Beaux - Arts in Lyon. Much to the painter's dismay. Ingres had already copied Flandrin's head of Madame Balay (see Op.cité supra, no. 2601, reproduced). There are two other preparatory drawings for this painting, similar to ours, one in the Baltimore Museum of Art, the second belonging to the collections of the Musée Ingres de Montauban (see G. Vigne, Dessins d'Ingres - Catalogue raisonné des dessins du musée de Montauban, Paris, 1995, no. 2602, reproduced).
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue