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Lot Essay
Ingres’ letters to Charles Marcotte d'Argenteuil (1773-1864) show the depth of the friendship between the artist and his first patron (Ternois, op. cit., 1999). The two met in 1810 in Rome while Ingres was pensionnaire at the Villa Medici, the seat of the Academie de France, and Charles Marcotte, a civil servant, was Napoleon's inspecteur des forets in Italy. Marcotte commissioned some of Ingres's most famous paintings, including the Odalisque with a slave (Cambridge, Harvard Art Museums), and the Sistine Chapel (Washington, National Gallery of Art).
Yet the best evidence of the friendship between Ingres and Marcotte may lie in the drawn portraits, around 20 in total, that Ingres made of his patron and his family. In 1828, at the age of 53, Marcotte married his niece Louise-Marie-Philippine Becquet de Layens (1798-1862). They had three children: Marie born in 1828, Joseph in 1831 and Louise in 1833. In a letter dated 1836 Ingres promised to draw the portraits of the children and to present them to Madame Marcotte. In 1846, a few months before their marriage, Ingres drew the portraits of Marie and of her fiance, Alexandre Legentil.
Marie (1828-1920), the eldest child of Charles and Louise Marcotte, was Ingres' favorite. Her talent as a musician probably contributed towards his special fondness for her and Ingres’ letters to Marcotte are full of affectionate references to her. The artist first drew Marie at the age of fifteen months, in a high chair wearing a bonnet, in two drawings identical in composition, both dedicated to 'Papa et Maman' (Naef, op. cit., 1977-80, nos. 325-326). In 1844, Marie met Alexandre Legentil (1821-1889), the son of a very wealthy drapery merchant. They got married in October 1846, three months after Ingres had drawn, one day apart, these two portraits dedicated to Madame Marcotte, Marie's mother. During the summer Ingres had written to his friend and student Calamatta, who had drawn Marie a few years earlier: 'L'on a présenté à Marie Marcotte un très beau jeune homme, il aura un jour 8 millions de fortune; la vierge a dit oui, et les deux familles, Legenty et Marcotte sont heureuses de ce oui. Tout aussi me fait espérer au bonheur de cet adorable enfant' (A very handsome young man was introduced to Marie Marcotte; he will one day have a fortune of 8 million; the young woman said yes, and the two families, Legenty and Marcotte, are happy with this yes. All of this gives me hope for the happiness of this adorable child) (D. Ternois, 'Lettres d'Ingres à Calamatta', Bulletin du Musée Ingres, 1982, nos. 47-8, p. 83).
Alexandre Legentil was deeply religious and when he had to flee Paris in 1870 he made the vow to build a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart should the city be spared by the Prussians. He then played a large part in the funding and construction of the immense Basilica dominating Paris which was not completed until 1914, 25 years after Legentil's death.
The couple were painted about ten years later by Ingres’ pupil, Hyppolite Flandrin (1809-1864), in a pair of paintings recently acquired by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (Fig. 1; inv. 2025.85.1 and 2025.85.2).
Strangely, in these drawings Ingres has used two different kinds of paper on which to draw, one day apart, the portraits of his sitters: an usual thin cream wove paper which was most probably originally stretched on a prepared tablet for the portrait of Alexandre and a thicker and heavily textured paper for Marie.
Fig. 1. Hyppolite Flandrin, Portraits of Marie Marcotte and Alexandre Legentil. Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Yet the best evidence of the friendship between Ingres and Marcotte may lie in the drawn portraits, around 20 in total, that Ingres made of his patron and his family. In 1828, at the age of 53, Marcotte married his niece Louise-Marie-Philippine Becquet de Layens (1798-1862). They had three children: Marie born in 1828, Joseph in 1831 and Louise in 1833. In a letter dated 1836 Ingres promised to draw the portraits of the children and to present them to Madame Marcotte. In 1846, a few months before their marriage, Ingres drew the portraits of Marie and of her fiance, Alexandre Legentil.
Marie (1828-1920), the eldest child of Charles and Louise Marcotte, was Ingres' favorite. Her talent as a musician probably contributed towards his special fondness for her and Ingres’ letters to Marcotte are full of affectionate references to her. The artist first drew Marie at the age of fifteen months, in a high chair wearing a bonnet, in two drawings identical in composition, both dedicated to 'Papa et Maman' (Naef, op. cit., 1977-80, nos. 325-326). In 1844, Marie met Alexandre Legentil (1821-1889), the son of a very wealthy drapery merchant. They got married in October 1846, three months after Ingres had drawn, one day apart, these two portraits dedicated to Madame Marcotte, Marie's mother. During the summer Ingres had written to his friend and student Calamatta, who had drawn Marie a few years earlier: 'L'on a présenté à Marie Marcotte un très beau jeune homme, il aura un jour 8 millions de fortune; la vierge a dit oui, et les deux familles, Legenty et Marcotte sont heureuses de ce oui. Tout aussi me fait espérer au bonheur de cet adorable enfant' (A very handsome young man was introduced to Marie Marcotte; he will one day have a fortune of 8 million; the young woman said yes, and the two families, Legenty and Marcotte, are happy with this yes. All of this gives me hope for the happiness of this adorable child) (D. Ternois, 'Lettres d'Ingres à Calamatta', Bulletin du Musée Ingres, 1982, nos. 47-8, p. 83).
Alexandre Legentil was deeply religious and when he had to flee Paris in 1870 he made the vow to build a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart should the city be spared by the Prussians. He then played a large part in the funding and construction of the immense Basilica dominating Paris which was not completed until 1914, 25 years after Legentil's death.
The couple were painted about ten years later by Ingres’ pupil, Hyppolite Flandrin (1809-1864), in a pair of paintings recently acquired by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles (Fig. 1; inv. 2025.85.1 and 2025.85.2).
Strangely, in these drawings Ingres has used two different kinds of paper on which to draw, one day apart, the portraits of his sitters: an usual thin cream wove paper which was most probably originally stretched on a prepared tablet for the portrait of Alexandre and a thicker and heavily textured paper for Marie.
Fig. 1. Hyppolite Flandrin, Portraits of Marie Marcotte and Alexandre Legentil. Getty Museum, Los Angeles.