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Study for the figure of Fame in sketch for 'The 'Apotheosis of Napoleon I'

Maker

(artist)
1780-1867

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1853

Medium

graphite on wove paper, now laid down on Japanese tissue

Dimensions

Height: 24 cm
Width: 16.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3607

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

This drawing is a study for the figure of Fame in the Apotheosis of Napoleon I, which was destroyed in a fire during the fourth French Revolution in 1871. Here the artist studies primarily the depiction of the chiton (or tunic) falling on the body, as suggested by the incisive modelling and the skilful rendering of the fabric’s weight and folds. The measured and classical forms give a sense of Ingres’s fascination for antiquity. The uncontested master of the ‘line’, Ingres famously said that ‘drawing is the probity of art.’

Notes

The painting, completed in 1853, originally adorned the ceiling of the Hotel de Ville in Paris. It was destroyed in 1871. There is a finished oil study in the Louvre.

Provenance

by descent to the artist's wife, Delphine Ramel, L.1477; F.A. Drey (London); purchased from him (in part exchange for Witt's drawing no.1837 by Fuseli) by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Special Display - French Drawings of the 19th century, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 08/02/2008-12/06/2008

Neo-Classical Drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, November 1972-December 1972

A selection of drawings from the Witt collection: French drawings c. 1600-c. 1800, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1962 ...More

French Master Drawings, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, 1962

French Masters - Rococo to Romanticism, UCLA, Los Angeles, 1961

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 01/09/1960-01/10/1960 ...Less

Literature

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1960
cat. no. 75

Alazard, Jean, Ingres et l'ingrisme, Paris 1950
fig. XCVIII

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: none.

Collector's mark: Recto: lower right corner, stamped in blue ink: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (L.1477).

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