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Lot Essay
Ingres executed the present portrait of the architect Jean-Louis Provost in Rome in 1813. Provost studied in Paris with Charles Percier, and in 1811 won the Prix de Rome and moved to the Académie de France. In the following year Ingres drew a double portrait of Provost and his friend and fellow-student, the architect Achille Leclère, who arrived in Rome in 1808. This portrait is now at the Smith College Art Museum, Northampton, Massachusetts (fig. 1).
Hans Naef (op.cit., p. 322) suggested that the double portrait remained with Leclère, and that Ingres executed the present drawing for Provost as a memento. Compared to the earlier drawing, the present drawing shows the sitter in a less formal way and is drawn with greater spontaneity, which may result from the fact that the artist and his sitter had become better acquainted during the previous year.
Jean-Louis Provost's career was not as successful as that of his friend Leclère. In spite of several prizes won as a student and the prestigious Prix de Rome, he realized only a few important works, among them the tomb of Maréchal Lefebvre in the cemetary of Père Lachaise in Paris. The fact that he executed only a few projects might also be due to his uncompromising principles as an architect. When asked to modify and enlarge the Palais de Luxembourg in Paris, originally designed by Salomon de Brosse, he refused out of respect for his great predecessor.
As M. Benedict Cohn has observed in her article on the technical aspects of Ingres' drawings, the artist sometimes drew on prepared tablets which he purchased from an art supply store, such as the one owned by his friend, the painter and art dealer Etienne-François Haro (Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, Ingres. Centennial Exhibition 1867-1967, 1967, p. 241-49). The drawing paper, usually a cream wove paper, was wrapped around a piece of cardboard, glued at the sides and at the edges folded to the back. Between the drawing paper and the mount, another layer consisting of a pale blue, high quality laid paper was wrapped. This not only protected the drawing paper from the acidic contents of the mount but also provided the artist with a particularly soft, cushioned surface: 'Such a structure also gave the drawing far more presence as complete and substantial work of art than ever could have been obtained from one on a loose sheet' (M. Benedict Cohn, op. cit, p. 243). The present drawing, although removed from the cardboard, still shows fragments of this blue backing paper on the verso.
Hans Naef (op.cit., p. 322) suggested that the double portrait remained with Leclère, and that Ingres executed the present drawing for Provost as a memento. Compared to the earlier drawing, the present drawing shows the sitter in a less formal way and is drawn with greater spontaneity, which may result from the fact that the artist and his sitter had become better acquainted during the previous year.
Jean-Louis Provost's career was not as successful as that of his friend Leclère. In spite of several prizes won as a student and the prestigious Prix de Rome, he realized only a few important works, among them the tomb of Maréchal Lefebvre in the cemetary of Père Lachaise in Paris. The fact that he executed only a few projects might also be due to his uncompromising principles as an architect. When asked to modify and enlarge the Palais de Luxembourg in Paris, originally designed by Salomon de Brosse, he refused out of respect for his great predecessor.
As M. Benedict Cohn has observed in her article on the technical aspects of Ingres' drawings, the artist sometimes drew on prepared tablets which he purchased from an art supply store, such as the one owned by his friend, the painter and art dealer Etienne-François Haro (Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum, Ingres. Centennial Exhibition 1867-1967, 1967, p. 241-49). The drawing paper, usually a cream wove paper, was wrapped around a piece of cardboard, glued at the sides and at the edges folded to the back. Between the drawing paper and the mount, another layer consisting of a pale blue, high quality laid paper was wrapped. This not only protected the drawing paper from the acidic contents of the mount but also provided the artist with a particularly soft, cushioned surface: 'Such a structure also gave the drawing far more presence as complete and substantial work of art than ever could have been obtained from one on a loose sheet' (M. Benedict Cohn, op. cit, p. 243). The present drawing, although removed from the cardboard, still shows fragments of this blue backing paper on the verso.