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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (Montauban 1780-1867 Paris)

Portrait of Marie Marcotte; and Portrait of Alexandre Legentil

Details
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (Montauban 1780-1867 Paris)
Portrait of Marie Marcotte; and Portrait of Alexandre Legentil
the first signed and inscribed 'Ingres Del. à Madame Marcotte' and further inscribed and dated 'au Poncelet. 28 aoust 1846.'; the second signed and inscribed 'Ingres Del à Madame Marcotte.' and further inscribed and dated 'au Poncelet. 29 aoust 1846.'
pencil, touches of white chalk
12 5/8 x 9½ in. (32 x 24 cm.)
a pair (2)
Provenance
Madame Charles Marcotte.
Joseph Marcotte, and by descent to the present owner.
Literature
E. Galichon, 'Dessins de M. Ingres', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1 July 1861, p. 47.
C. Blanc, Ingres, Paris, 1870, p. 238.
H. Delaborde, Ingres, Paris, 1870, nos. 348-9.
H. Lapauze, Les dessins de J.-A.-D. Ingres du Musée de Montauban, Paris, 1901, p. 249.
H. Lapauze, Les portraits dessinés de J.-A.-D. Ingres, Paris, 1903, nos. 54-5, illustrated.
A. Alexandre, Jean-Dominique Ingres, Master of Pure Draughtsmanship, London, 1905, pl. 23 (the portrait of Marie Marcotte).
H. Lapauze, Ingres, Paris, 1911, p. 401, illustrated (the portrait of Marie Marcotte).
H. Graber, J.A.D. Ingres, Gedanken über Kunst, Landschlacht and Constanz, 1927, p. 72, illustrated.
L. Hourticq, Ingres, Paris, 1928, pl. 90.
W. George, 'Portraits par Ingres et ses élèves', La Renaissance de l'art français, October-November 1934, p. 198, illustrated (the portrait of Marie Marcotte).
U. Christoffel, Klassizismus in Frankreich um 1800, Munich, 1940, p. 43, illustrated (the portrait of Marie Marcotte).
M. Malingue, Ingres, Monte Carlo, 1943, p. 119, illustrated (the portrait of Marie Marcotte).
H. Naef, 'Ingres' Portraits of the Marcotte Family', The Art Bulletin, XL, no. 4, December 1958, pp. 336-45, figs. 18-19.
Ingres Centennial Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, 1967, under no. 65.
E. Haverkamp-Begemann and A.M.S. Logan, European Drawings and Watercolours in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven and London, 1970, p. 76, under no. 133.
H. Naef, Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres, Bern, 1977-80, II, pp. 526-9, figs. 20-1 and V, nos. 403-4, illustrated.
D. Ternois, Lettres d'Ingres à Marcotte d'Argenteuil, Nogent-le-Roi, 1999, pp. 24, 27 notes 75-1.
D. Ternois, Lettres d'Ingres à Marcotte d'Argenteuil. Dictionnaire, Nogent-le-Roi, 2001, p. 184 and figs. 21-2.
Ingres & Marcotte. Lettres, documents, dessins et gravures, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Institut néerlandais, 2001, p. 26 under no. 23.
Exhibited
Paris, Salon des Arts Unis, Dessins d'Ingres tirés de collections d'amateurs, 1861.
Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Ingres, 1867, nos. 348-9.
Paris, Chambre Syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, Ingres, 1921, nos. 114-5.
Paris, Galerie Jacques Seligman, Portraits par Ingres et ses élèves, 1934, no. 36.
Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Le Second Empire, 1957, nos. 169-70.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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Alexandra McMorrow
Alexandra McMorrow

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Lot Essay

Marie (1828-1920), the eldest child of Charles and Louise Marcotte, was also Ingres' favourite. Her talent as a musician probably contributed towards his special fondness for her and his letters to Marcotte are full of affectionate references to her. Ingres 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, 1977-80, nos. 325-6). 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 (see Day Sale, 8 July, lot 130): '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' (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.

Strangely, Ingres has used two different kinds of paper 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 (see lot 54) for the portrait of Alexandre and a thicker and heavily textured paper for Marie.

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