Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Mme. Aristide-Laurent Dumont, née Pauline-Josephine Dufresne, Paris (d. 1840);
bequeathed to her husband, Aristide-Laurent Dumont, Paris (d. 1853);
by descent to his brother, Bias Dumont (d. 1878);
given by him to Dr. Henry Gillet, Melun (d.1907);
by descent to his wife, Mme. Henry Gillet, née Marie-Adelphine Martinot, Paris (d. 1935);
Galerie de Bayser, Paris (acquired through an intermediary from the Gillet family);
from whom acquired by the present owner, 2002

Paris, Chambre Syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, Ingres, 1921, no. 229 (lent by Mme Gillet)

C. Blanc, Ingres, Paris 1870, p. 246 (illustrated with the engraving by Leroux);
H. Delaborde, Ingres, Paris 1870, no. 290 (illustrated with the engraving by Leroux);
H. Lapauze, Les dessins de J.-A.-D. Ingres du Museé de Montauban, Paris 1901, p. 265 (illustrated with the engraving by Leroux);
H.de Chennevières, 'François Dumont miniaturiste de la reine Marie-Antoinette', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1 March 1903, p. 190, (as belonging to Dr. Gillet, and illustrated with the heliogravure by Chauvet);
H.Bouchot, La miniature française, 1750-1825, Paris 1910, p. 131;
Henry Lapauze, Ingres, Paris 1911, p. 286;
J.-C. Sueur, Le portraitiste Antoine Vestier (1740-1824), Neuilly-sur-Seine 1974, p. 68, fig. 1 and p. 109, fig. 2;
H. Naef, Die Bildniszeichungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres, Bern 1980, vol. III, pp. 105-113 and vol. V, pp. 166-167, no. 336 (illustrated with the Chauvet heliogravure; the date incorrectly transcribed as 25 December)

The following condition report was kindly provided by Alvarez Fine Art Services, Inc.: This drawing was originally executed on a paper support and thereafter folded at its edges around a secondary board or perhaps upon a thin stretcher. It has since been removed and mounted to a new secondary support that appears to be acid-free in nature. Structurally it is in excellent condition, without tears, punctures or any planar distortions. Visually, the paper appears to have an overall oxidation and discoloration caused by foreign impurities. This change in color can be seen at the edges of the paper, where the presence of the previous mat can still be found. There are also several foxing spots throughout the paper (as in the trousers and in the upper-left quadrant). These disturbances can be arrested successfully if the drawing is removed and correctnly treated.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Aristide-Laurent Dumont, the dashing subject of this drawing, was the son of François Dumont, a history painter, portraitist and miniaturist, and his wife Nicole, who was the daughter of the famous portrait painter Antoine Vestier.  François had a very successful career under the patronage of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, and was given the rooms of Cochin in the Louvre, where Aristide was born on 10 July 1790.  The family kept those living quarters and, although nothing is known of their whereabouts during the Revolution, they returned to them after the fall of Napoleon.

Aristide himself worked briefly in the atelier of Jacques-Louis David, and had he continued his artistic training, he would have "sans doute devenu un peintre estimable".¹  Instead, he became a civil servant, working at the Ministry of the Interior and the Bureau des Beaux-Arts, where he became Administrator.  In 1836 Dumont succeeded Léonor Mérimée (father of Prosper) as sécretaire-perpétuel of the École des Beaux-Arts, where Ingres had been a professor since 1829.  Dumont and Ingres had certainly met each other by 1828, previous to the latter's appointment to the École.  They became good friends and shared many interests and concerns.

In this drawing, Dumont is wearing the uniform of a Captain in the National Guard.  Naef notes that this suggests his support for King Louis-Philippe's newly-founded "July Monarchy" (1830-1848), to which Ingres also was sympathetic.  Four years after this portrait was executed, Mme. Dumont also sat for Ingres (lot 136).  Shortly thereafter, Ingres accepted the directorship of the Villa Medici in Rome where he remained until 1841.  Dumont and Ingres corresponded frequently during the artist's Roman sojourn and their friendship continued after his return to Paris.  Dumont suffered ill health in later years and died from a fall in 1853.

This drawing disappeared from view for many years but was known through a heliogravure made by Chauvet, which Naef and others used to illustrate their catalogues.  Another portrait of M. Dumont, not in uniform, 1838, is known through an engraving by Leroux dated 1838.²  

Ingres portraits are always extraordinarily vivid and compelling, but when they are of people who were special friends of his, like the Dumonts and Mlle Marcotte (lot 139), and there are surviving letters to supplement the visual record, they become even more powerfully engaging images.

1.  As stated by Edouard-Félix-Etienne Emery, Discours prononcé sur la tombe d'Aristide-Laurent Dumont, le 8 octobre 1853, Paris 1853, p. 2

2.  See Naef, op. cit., vol. III, p. 107, fig. 2