The Morgan Library & Museum presents Ingres at the Morgan, an exhibition of seventeen drawings and three letters. The installation, organized by Esther Bell, Moore Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Drawings and Prints, offers visitors a fascinating insight into the life and career of one of the finest 19th century painters and draftsmen in French history.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres – About the Artist
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) studied initially at the Académie Royale in Toulouse. He then entered the studio of the sculptor Jacques-Louis David in 1797, followed by further studies at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Ingres lived in Italy from 1806 to 1824, spending some time at the French Academy in Rome, at the Villa Medici. Whilst in Rome, Ingres established his own studio concentrating mainly on Imperial commissions and portraits of French occupation officials and their families. After returning to Paris in 1824, he was elected to the French Royal Academy in 1825, and by the 1840s was a successful artist with his own atelier in Paris.
Ingres found inspiration in ancient, medieval and national history; literature, such as Homer, Ossian and Dante; as well as the Bible and mythology. He had a wide variety of interests ranging from Graeco-Roman antiquity and Raphael's madonnas and frescos to the works of Philippe de Champaigne and Jan van Eyck.
Ingres at the Morgan – Highlights of the Exhibition
The exhibition highlights significant points in the artist's career including works produced during his time at the Académie Royale in Toulouse, such as Portrait of a Boy (c.1793-4). The next part of the exhibition shows how Ingres changed his style after entering David's studio, forsaking the minute details that characterized his early drawings. The show also includes several sketches executed while Ingres was at the Villa Medici, including a preparatory drawing for Oedipus and the Sphinx (1808).
Also on display is Portrait of Monsieur Guillaume Guillon Lethière (1815), depicting the new Director of the French Academy in Rome. Ingres shows Lethière’s face delicately drawn, in sharp contrast to the rough lines of his collar and coat. The drawing is inscribed at lower right: “M. de Ingres / a Madlle”.
The most important item in the exhibition is Odalisque and Slave (1839), a large-scale graphite and black chalk drawing, which was probably a preparatory drawing for an engraved version. The drawing, which captured the hearts of 19th-century Parisians, is inscribed and dated at the lower left: “J. Ingres/Rom. 1839”.
Ingres's Letters
Ingres at the Morgan also features three important letters. In one, addressed to his fiancée, Marie-Anne-Julie Forestier, and written during his first days in Rome. He describes his homesickness, saying: “I lie down from nine at night until six in the morning, I do not sleep, I roll around in my bed, I cry, I think continuously of you . . .”. Nine months later, after adverse reviews of work exhibited at the Paris Salon, Ingres refused to return to Paris, and broke off the engagement.
Related Exhibition – David, Delacroix, and Revolutionary France: Drawings from the Louvre
The installation will run concurrently with David, Delacroix, and Revolutionary France: Drawings from the Louvre. This exhibition of drawings, loaned to the Morgan by the Louvre Museum Paris, includes a further ten items by Ingres.
Ingres at the Morgan is sponsored by the Rita Marcus Fund, with additional support from the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. The exhibition will be on display from 9th September – 27th November 2011.
Sources:
- The Morgan Library & Museum
- Read H., Stangos N., The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Art and Artists, Thames and Hudson, 1994
- Fride-Carrassat, P., Great Painters (Chambers Arts Library), Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 2004
Frances Spiegel - Frances Spiegel, B.A. Hons. (Open)., Dip.Eur.Hum., read Art History/European Modern History at the Open University.
