''Madame Moitessier'' is a portrait of Marie-Clotilde-Inès Moitessier (née de Foucauld) begun in 1844 and completed in 1856 by

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ...

. The portrait, which depicts Madame Moitessier seated, is now in the collection of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, which acquired it in 1936. ''Madame Moitessier'' is also the title of a second portrait by Ingres, which depicts her standing; it was painted in 1851 and is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art,

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Subject

Marie-Clotilde-Inès de Foucauld (1821–1897) was the daughter of a French civil servant in the department of forests and waterways.Tinterow; Conisbee et al, 426 In 1842 she married a widower twice her age, the rich banker and lace merchant Sigisbert Moitessier, thus becoming Madame Moitessier. In 1844 Ingres was approached by his longtime friend and former painting subject

Charles Marcotte Charles Marcotte (November 1, 1844 – September 20, 1901) was a notary and political figure in Quebec. He represented L'Islet in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1881 to 1886 as a Conservative. He was born in Cap-Santé, Canada E ...

, who was one of Sigisbert Moitessier's colleagues, with the idea of painting Madame Moitessier's portrait. Reluctant at this stage in his career to accept portrait commissions—he considered portraiture to be a lower form of art than history painting—he initially refused Marcotte's request. However, when Ingres met Madame Moitessier, he was struck by her beauty and agreed to produce a portrait. Art critic

Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...

, who watched during some of the painting sessions, agreed with Ingres, describing her beauty as the most regal, magnificent, stately and

Juno Juno commonly refers to: *Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods *Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007 Juno may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters *Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno'' *Ju ...

esque that he had ever seen drawn.

Two portraits

He began work on the seated version, depicting the subject in a floral dress. Work on the commission proceeded slowly. The painting was originally to include the Moitessiers' daughter, Catherine; Ingres, finding little Catherine "impossible", eliminated her from the composition sometime around 1847. Work on the painting was suspended in 1849, when the death in June of Ingres' wife left him unable to work for several months, and Madame Moitessier was distracted by her second pregnancy and the death of her father. In June 1851, having been reminded by the woman he called "la belle et bonne" ("the beautiful and good") that her portrait had still not been completed, Ingres began afresh, painting the standing portrait of her in a dark dress, which he finished in December 1851. He then returned to the seated portrait, which he completed in 1856, twelve years after he started it. Characteristically, Ingres found inspiration in the art of the past when painting ''Madame Moitessier''. The pose with a hand touching the cheek was taken from a fresco of

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

and

Telephus In Greek mythology, Telephus (; grc-gre, Τήλεφος, ''Tēlephos'', "far-shining") was the son of Heracles and Auge, who was the daughter of king Aleus of Tegea. He was adopted by Teuthras, the king of Mysia, in Asia Minor, whom he succe ...

from Herculaneum that he may have seen in Naples in 1814, and which was familiar to him through

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

s. According to the National Gallery,

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

's ''

La Schiavona ''La Schiavona'' ('the woman from Dalmatia'), also known as ''Portrait of a Lady'', is a 1510–1512 portrait by Titian of an unknown woman. Identity of the sitter The painting was being referred to as ''La Schiavona'' before the beginning ...

'', also in the gallery, may have inspired the second profile view in the mirror. She is wearing a dress of fashionable and expensive Lyon silk printed with a floral pattern, which is echoed by the flowers and leaves of the gilt frame. A similar frame was used for Ingres's 1853 portrait of '' The Princesse de Broglie''. File:Arcadia, ercolano.jpg, Fresco of

and

from Herculaneum, 1st century BC File:Titian - Portrait of a Lady ('La Schiavona') - Google Art Project.jpg, Titian, ''

'', 1510–12 File:Jean-auguste-dominique ingres, madame moitessier, 1856, 01.jpg, Madame Moitessier in context: The heavily decorated frame echoes the floral pattern of the sitter's dress Numerous drawn studies for both portraits exist. A study on canvas for the seated portrait, in which the figure has been drawn by Ingres and the background painted by an assistant, is in the Musée Ingres in

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Legacy

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

first encountered the painting at an exhibition in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, in 1921. Over the next decade, he repeatedly referenced Ingres in his art, particularly in his homage in the painting ‘Woman with a Book’. The model for ‘Woman with a Book’, Picasso's then young mistress,

Marie-Thérèse Walter Marie-Thérèse Walter (13 July 1909 – 20 October 1977) was a French model and lover of Pablo Picasso from 1927 to about 1935 and the mother of their daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Their relationship began when she was seventeen years old; he ...

, mimics Madame Moitessier’s pose. The painting was completed in August of 1932. The painting is currently held by the

Norton Simon Museum The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds. Overview The Norton Si ...

, in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The two paintings were exhibited together for the first time at a temporary exhibition organised in partnership with the

, held at the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 2022.

Notes

References

* Ribeiro, Aileen (1999). ''Ingres in Fashion: Representations of Dress and Appearance in Ingres's Images of Women''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. *Tinterow, Gary; Conisbee, Philip; Naef, Hans (1999). ''Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

External links

1856 portrait (National Gallery site)1851 portrait (NGA site)1851 portrait study at the J. Paul Getty MuseumJune 2019 talk given by Chris Riopelle on Ingres's Madame Moitessier
{{Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1856 paintings Collections of the National Gallery, London Portraits by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres 19th-century portraits Portraits of women