Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780-1867)
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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780-1867)

Tête de Jeanne d'Arc en extase

Details
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780-1867)
Tête de Jeanne d'Arc en extase
signed 'Ingres' (lower right)
oil on canvas and paper laid down on panel
14 1/8 x 10 7/8 in. (36 x 27.5 cm.)
possibly painted in 1862-1866
Provenance
Albert Ramel (Artist's brother-in-law).
Amaudru Collection.
Literature
H. Delaborde, Ingres, sa vie et ses travaux, sa doctrine, d'aprés les notes manuscrites et les lettres du maître, Paris, 1870, p. 225.
H. Lapauze, 'Jean Briant paysagiste (1760-1799), maître de Ingres, et le paysage dans l'oeuvre de Ingres', Revue de l'Art Ancien et Moderne, 1911, vol. I, p. 304.
G. Wildenstein, Ingres, London, 1956, p. 221, no. 275 (as Head of Joan of Arc; in the background a landscape with a church, whereabouts unkown).
E. Camesasca, Tout l'oeuvre peint d'Ingres, Paris, 1971.
D. Edelstein ed., In Pursuit of Perfection, the Art of J.-A.-D. Ingres, exh. cat., J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville Kentucky, and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1984, p. 242 (mentioned as location unknown).
G. Vigne, Dessins d'Ingres, catalogue raisonné des dessins du Musée de Montauban, Paris, 1995, p. 154 (mentioned as lost).
Exhibited
Paris, Palais de l'Ecole impériale des Beaux-Arts, Travaux, études peintes, dessins et croquis de Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1867, no. 60.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
Sale room notice
Please note that the present work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre de Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute.

Please note that the medium should read 'oil on canvas and paper laid down on panel' and not as stated in the catalogue.

Please note that the provenance, exhibition history and literature should read as follows:

PROVENANCE:
Albert Ramel (Artist's brother-in-law).
Amaudru Collection.

EXHIBITED:
Paris, Palais de l'Ecole impériale des Beaux-Arts, Travaux, études peintes, dessins et croquis de Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1867, no. 60.

LITERATURE:
H. Delaborde, Ingres, sa vie et ses travaux, sa doctrine, d'aprés les notes manuscrites et les lettres du maître, Paris, 1870, p. 225.
H. Lapauze, 'Jean Briant paysagiste (1760-1799), maître de Ingres, et le paysage dans l'oeuvre de Ingres', Revue de l'Art Ancien et Moderne, 1911, vol. I, p. 304.
G. Wildenstein, Ingres, London, 1956, p. 221, no. 275 (as Head of Joan of Arc; in the background a landscape with a church, whereabouts unknown).
E. Camesasca, Tout l'oeuvre peint d'Ingres, Paris, 1971. D. Edelstein ed., In Pursuit of Perfection, the Art of J.-A.-D. Ingres,, exh. cat., J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, and the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1984, p. 242 (mentioned as location unknown).
G. Vigne, Dessins d'Ingres, catalogue raisonné des dessins du Musée de Montauban, Paris, 1995, p. 154, (mentioned as lost).

Lot Essay

The present work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre de Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute.

Ingres' interest in Joan of Arc (c. 1412-31) began in 1844 with a series of drawings. In 1851 the artist was commissioned by the newly instituted government of Napoleon III to paint Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII (fig. 1). The painting was finished in 1854 and exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1855. Although Ingres was never overtly political, it is certain that the image of the maiden of Orleans, French patriot and martyr, was a potent symbol that the Second Empire could appropriate to project notions of tradition and infuse a sense of national unity in a very volatile political environment.

Towards the end of his life Ingres returned to this subject. In this highly worked study which the artist began in 1862 and reworked in 1866, by extending the composition, Joan of Arc is depicted staring upwards towards what appears to be a ray of divine light gently beaming down on her and comforting her in her mission.

The technically highly accomplished style of this work is typical of Ingres. It embodies the academic tradition that he taught and so staunchly defended, as well as illustrating the ease with which he borrowed from 15th century primitive oil painting. The buildings in the background, to the right, have been identified as those of the convent of Mueng-sur-Loire with its clearly visible 11th century steeple. In 1429 Joan of Arc made an heroic assault on the bridge at Meung. It is significant that Ingres was in the habit of spending his summers in this town where the brother of his second wife, Albert Ramel, was a municipal councillor. In this portrait Ingres successfully conveys a sense of the Saint's youthful beauty at the same time as expressing the solemnity of her terrifying destiny. She is still in the guise of the fragile, young peasant from Domrémy, barely clutching her lance, but clearly announces the heraldic, accomplished warrior-saint of the Louvre's coronation painting.

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