Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Eugène Rodrigues, Paris (Lugt 897)
Dr Otto Wertheimer, Paris, (acquired by 1957)
Comte & Comtesse Guy du Boisrouvray (sale: Sotheby's, New York, 23rd May 1996, lot 16)
Purchased at the above sale by the late owner

Hans Naef, Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.A.D. Ingres, Berne, 1977, Vol. IV, no. 92, illustrated p. 170
Linie, Licht und Schatten, Meisterzeichnungen und Skulpturen der Sammlung Jan und Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski (exhibition catalogue), Berlin, 1999, p. 407, illustrated
The Timeless Eye. Master Drawings from the Jan and Marie-Anne Krugier-Poniatowski Collection (exhibition catalogue), Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Venice, 1999, illustrated p. 406

Hinged to the mount at the upper margin. The edges of the drawing are covered by the mount. Around the margins you can see slight discolouration from previous mounting and some tiny fox marks, more visible along left margin. There is a slight indication of a horizontal fold at the top margin. Overall in good condition, chalk strong. Sold in a modern , wooden and gilded frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Before he travelled to Rome in 1806, Ingres had made a small number of portrait drawings, but most of those were in the smaller, circular, medallion-like profile format favoured by his teacher, Jacques-Louis David, rather than the more open, upright format seen here.  Although Ingres' primary focus once in Italy was ostensibly history painting, he soon began to make increasingly beautiful and refined portrait drawings, mainly of fellow-visitors to Rome, and these works must in fact have become a mainstay of his existence there.  Relatively soon, it was obligatory for any cultured traveller to have themselves drawn by Ingres, and the artist's early Italian period portrait drawings such as this are works of great quality, inventiveness and refinement.

Although the sitter's identity cannot be proved with any certainty, Hans Naef suggested that the man may be David-Pierre de Montbreton de Villemoyenne, a portrait of whom Naef knew to have existed from a mention in the catalogue of the 1890 sale of the collection of Monsieur de Montbreton de Villemoyenne's niece, Madame Gengoult de Clairville (Paris, Drouot, 9th May 1890, lot 14; Naef 72).  Naef's identification of the sitter would seem to be based on a suggested family resemblance to the man seen in Ingres' painted and drawn portraits of de Montbreton de Villemoyenne's brother, the magistrate and author Jacques Marquet de Montbreton de Norvins (the painting in the National Gallery, London; the drawing, Naef 71, in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond).

Naef gave two catalogue numbers to possibly identical versions of the present portrait, acknowledging that they might in fact refer to one and the same drawing.  The 'other,' lost, drawing (Naef 91) had a 19th-century French provenance (Albert Goupil collection, then two Paris sales, in 1888 and 1898) that would not be incompatible with the known provenance of the Krugier-Poniatowski drawing, which begins with the collection of the Parisian connoisseur Eugène Rodrigues.  Rodrigues' collection is best known for its remarkable strength in 16th-century Netherlandish and German drawings, works that were dispersed in the first Rodrigues sale, held at Frederik Muller in Amsterdam, on 12th-13th July 1921.  There were, however, also subsequent sales from the collection, held in Paris on 28th-29th November 1928 and 25th-26th February 1929, which contained a number of later works, so it is clear that Rodrigues' artistic tastes were not as narrow as is generally thought.