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Painting of seated woman with curled hair and dark dress

A light-skinned woman sits in a wooden chair that faces right, though her face is directed at the viewer. She has shiny, center-parted blonde hair arranged in tight coils. Her eyes are large and gray, and she has a long nose and full lips. She wears a satiny black dress with a lace collar, buttons, and a dark bow. The woman’s face appears a bit blurry in contrast to the sharp textural detail of her hair and clothing. The background behind her is a medium gray, and the painting is a rough oval shape on the off-white canvas.

Gallery Text

Ingres painted this likeness of his good friend in her summer home in Enghien, near Paris. He had met Augustine-Modeste-Hortense and her husband, Frédéric, in Italy, during his tenure as the director of the French Academy in Rome; Frédéric soon became an avid collector of the artist’s work and later served as curator of drawings at the Louvre. After returning to Paris, Ingres often sought refuge at his friends’ lake house, which he called “paradise.”

With its oval format, limited color range, and the striking realism of its sitter, this painting can easily be compared to daguerreotype photography. The compositional structure is identical to that of Ingres’s later self-portrait, which was based on a photograph and hangs in a nearby gallery. However, rather than imitating the new medium of photography, this work, with its subtle fluctuation between clarity and blurriness, functions as a painterly challenge to the early limitations of photographic technologies.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.249
People
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French (Montauban 1780 - 1867 Paris)
Title
Augustine-Modeste-Hortense Reiset
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Portrait of Mme. Frederic Reiset
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1846
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230110

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2710, North Arcade
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
62.2 x 49.5 cm (24 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.)
framed: 80 x 67 cm (31 1/2 x 26 3/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: J. Ingres p.it / Enghein 1846
  • stamp: back of canvas: [per file:] un Spectre Solitaire / Quai de l'Ecole 18 / et 38 / Rue Nve Vivienne / COL[ ].
  • label: back of frame

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Marie-Eugène-Frédéric Reiset and his wife, Hortense Reiset, by descent; to thier daughter, Comtesse Adolphe-Louis-Edgar de Ségur-Lamoignon, Méry-sur-Oise, by descent; to her son Louis-Maire-Frédéric-Guillaume de Ségur-Lamoignon, until 1932. Grenville L. Winthrop [acquired through Martin Birnbaum via André Weill], New York, NY, May 19, 1935, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.249
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Paul ("Bibliophile Jacob") Lacroix, "M. Ingres à l'Exposition Universelle", Revue Universelle des Arts (October 1855 - March 1856), vol. II, p. 208
  • Claude Vignon, Exposition Universelle de 1855, A. Fontaine (Paris, France, 1855), p. 192
  • Exposition Universelle de Paris en 1855: Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, gravure, lithographie et architecture des artistes vivants etrangers et francais, exh. cat., Vinchon (Paris, France, 1855), no. 5048
  • Théophile Silvestre, Histoire des artistes vivants français et étrangers, études d'après nature (Paris, 1856), pp. 38-39
  • Visites et études de S.A.I. le Prince Napoléon au Palais des Beaux-Arts ou description complete de cette exposition (Paris, France, 1856)
  • Edmond Saglio, "Un Nouveau Tableau de M. Ingres, liste complète de ses oeuvres", La Correspondence Litteraire (February 5, 1857), p. 78
  • Emile Bellier de la Chavignerie, "Notes sur l'oeuvre de M. Ingres", La Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité (1867), vol. V, p. 60
  • Olivier Merson and Emile Bellier de la Chavignerie, Ingres, sa Vie et ses Oeuvres, J. Hetzel (Paris, France, 1867), pp. 23, 117
  • Charles Blanc, Ingres, sa vie et ses ouvrages, Vve. J. Renouard (Paris, France, 1870), p. 233
  • Henri, Vicomte Delaborde, Ingres, sa vie, ses travaux, sa doctrine, d'apres les notices manuscrites et les lettres du maitre, H. Plon (Paris, France, 1870), no. 151, p. 239
  • Eugene Montrosier, Peintres modernes: Ingres, H. Flandrin, Robert Fleury, Ludovic Baschet (Paris, France, 1882), p. 19
  • Charles-Phillippe, Marquis de Chennevières-Pointel, Souvenirs d'un Directeur des Beaux-Arts (Paris, France, 1885), pp. 91, 94
  • Henry Lapauze, Les dessins de J.-A.-D. Ingres du Musée de Montauban, J. E. Bulloz (Paris, France, 1901), pp. 115, 236, 249
  • Jules Momméja, Ingres, H. Laurens (Paris, France, 1904), p. 103
  • Jules Momméja, Collection Ingres au Musée de Montauban, Inventaire General des richeses d'art de la France. Province, Monuments civils (1905), p. 139, above no. 1832
  • Georges LeComte, "Ingres, son oeuvre, son influence", Le Correspondent (1911), vols. II and III, pp. 337, 350
  • Henry Lapauze, Ingres, sa vie & son oeuvre, G. Petit (Paris, France, 1911), pp. 384-385, 442, repr. p. 397
  • The Masterpieces of Ingres (1780-1867): Sixty Reproductions of Photographs from the Original Paintings, Gowans & Gray, Ltd. (London, England, 1913), repr. as pl. 29
  • Léon Rosenthal, De Romanticism au Realisme (Paris, France, 1914), p. 180
  • [Eugéne-Emmanuel Pineu-Duval] Amaury-Duval, "M. Ingres", La Renaissance de l'art Français (May 1921), vol. IV, no. 5, repr p. 252
  • C. H. Collins Baker, "Reflections on the Ingres Exhibition", The Burlington Magazine (July 1921), vol. XXXIX, p. 41, repro pl. IIC
  • Henry Lapauze, Exposition Ingres, exh. cat., Galerie Georges Petit (Paris, France, 1921), no. 40
  • Exposition retrospective d'art français, exh. cat., Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1926), no. 61
  • Louis Hourticq, Ingres: l'oeuvre du maitre, Hachette (Paris, France, 1928), p. vii, repro p. 91
  • Morton Zabel, "The Portrait Methods of Ingres", Art and Archaeology (1929), XXVIII, p. 115
  • Jacques-Emile Blanche, "Le XIXe Siecle", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1932), vol. VII, repro p. 85 fig. 9
  • Claire Batigne, Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts (London, 1932), no. 277
  • Alexandrine Miller, "Ingres' Three Methods of Drawing as Revealed by his Crayon Portraits", Art in America (January 1938), vol. XXVI, p. 13 no. 22
  • Walter Pach, Ingres, Harper and Brothers Publishers (New York, NY and London, England, 1939), p. 103
  • Edward King, "Ingres as Classicist", The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery (1942), vol. V, p. 103 n. 8
  • Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, Jades, Paintings and Drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art; selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1943), p. 3
  • Agnes Mongan, "Drawings by Ingres in the Winthrop Collection", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (July-December 1944), ser. 6, 26, pp. 338 n. 1, 406
  • Anthony Bertram, Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (London, England, 1949), p. XXXI
  • Jean Alazard, Ingres et l'Ingrisme, Michel (Paris, France, 1950), p. 106
  • Frank Elgar, Ingres, Les Editions du Chene (Paris, France, 1951), fig. 73 p. 12
  • French Drawings: Masterpieces from Five Centuries, exh. cat., Plantin Press (New York, NY, 1952 - 1953), p. 47, under no. 117
  • Brinsley Ford, "Ingres' Portrait Drawing of the Reiset Family", The Burlington Magazine (1953), vol. XCV, p. 356, nn. 3, 4
  • Georges Wildenstein, Ingres, Phaidon Press (London, England, 1954), no. 250, p. 216, pl. 96
  • Agnes Mongan, "Ingres et Mme Moitessier", Bulletin du Musée Ingres, Amis du Musée Ingres (Montauban, France, July 1957), p. 4
  • Daniel Ternois, Les dessins d'Ingres au Musée de Montauban: les portraits, Les Presses Artistique (Paris, France, 1959), above no. 169
  • Martin Birnbaum, The Last Romantic (New York, NY, 1960), p. 194
  • Ingres, exh. cat., Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1967), p. 300, under no. 232
  • Ingres: Centennial Exhibition, 1867-1967. Drawings, Watercolors and Oil Sketches from American Collections, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1967), under nos. 88, 94
  • Paintings from the Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop shown in conjunction with the Ingres Centennial Exhibition, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1967), no. IV
  • Emilio Radius and Ettore Camesasca, L'opera completa di Ingres, Rizzoli (Milan, Italy, 1968), no. 142, pp. 112-113, repr.
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), no. 84, p. 240
  • Daniel Ternois and Ettore Camesasca, Tout l'oeuvre peint d'Ingres (Paris, France, 1971), no. 143, pp. 112-113, repr.
  • Kenneth Clark, The Romantic Rebellion: Romantic Versus Classic Art (New York, NY, 1973), pp. 136, 138, fig. 99
  • Jon Whiteley, Ingres, Oresko Books Ltd. (London, England, 1977), no. 58
  • Hans Naef, Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres (Bern, Switzerland, 1978), vol. II, p. 179; vol. III, pp. 350 fig. 4., 351
  • Marjorie B. Cohn and Susan L. Siegfried, Works by J. A. D. Ingres in the Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1980), no. 47, pps. 132-134; repr. in b/w p. 133; color p. 21; text pp. 10, 14
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 201, p. 177, repr. in b/w
  • Maria Jedding-Gesterling, ed., Hairstyles: A Cultural History of Fashions in Hair from Antiquity up to the Present Day, Hans Schwarzkopf GmbH (Hamburg, Germany, 1988), pp. 185-186, repr. in b/w no. 339
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 112; repr. no. 281
  • Annalisa Zanni, Ingres: catalogo completo dei dipinti, Cantini Editore (Florence, Italy, 1990), cat. 94; repr. p. 122
  • [Eugéne-Emmanuel Pineu-Duval] Amaury-Duval, L'Atelier d'Ingres: Edition critique de l'ouvrage publié à Paris en 1878, ed. Daniel Ternois, Arthena (Paris, France, 1993), p. 336, n. 12
  • José Luis Díez, Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz (1815-1894), exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain, 1994), pp. 25-26, repr. in color
  • Uwe Fleckner, Abbild und Abstraktion: die Kunst des Porträts im Werk von J.-A.-D. Ingres, Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz, Germany, 1995), pp. 218-219, fig. 79
  • Georges Vigne, Ingres, Citadelles & Mazenod and Abbeville Press (Paris, France; New York, NY, 1995), p. 250; repr. in color p. 252 as fig. 206
  • 19th century European paintings, and sculpture including master drawings, auct. cat., Christie's, New York (New York, NY, May 22 1996), p. 58, under no. 48
  • Aileen Ribeiro, Ingres in Fashion: Representations of Dress and Appearance in Ingres's Images of Women, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1999), repr. p. 115; pp. 141-143, 147
  • Daniel Ternois, ed., Lettres d'Ingres à Marcotte d'Argenteuil, Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français (Nogent-le-Roi, France, 1999), p. 248
  • Valérie Bajou, Monsieur Ingres, Editions Adam Biro (Paris, France, 1999), pp. 308-309, #208, repr. in color
  • Gary Tinterow and Philip Conisbee, Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1999), p. 362, repr. as fig. 207; pp. 364, 421, 469 under no. 151, 519 n. 106, 554
  • Chikashi Kitazaki and Mina Oya, ed., Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, 2002), p. 29, repr. as fig. 16
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), no. 74, pp. 192-193, repr. in color
  • Christopher Riopelle, Harvard's Winthrop Collection: Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, exh. cat., National Gallery Company Limited (London, 2003), p. 30, cat. 17, ill.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 74, pp. 202-203, repr. in color
  • Paul-Louis Roubert, L'image sans qualités: Les beaux-arts et la critique à l'épreuve de la photographie: 1839-1859, Monum (Paris, France, 2006), p. 97, repr. in color

Exhibition History

  • Exposition Universelle de Paris, 1855, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Paris, 05/15/1855 - 12/31/1855
  • Exposition Ingres, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 04/26/1911 - 05/14/1911
  • Exposition Ingres, Chambre Syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 05/08/1921 - 06/05/1921
  • Exposition Retrospective d'Art Français, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 07/03/1926 - 10/03/1926
  • Exhibition of French Art, 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 01/01/1932 - 03/05/1932
  • Chinese sculpture, bronzes, jades, paintings and drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art : selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/01/1943 - 02/28/1944
  • Paintings from the Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop shown in conjunction with the Ingres Centennial Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/12/1967 - 04/09/1967
  • Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/23/1969 - 03/31/1969
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • Works by J.-A.-D. Ingres in the Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/17/1980 - 12/07/1980
  • France and the Portrait, 1799-1870, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/03/1994 - 01/29/2002
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • 32Q: 2710 North Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/02/2022 - 04/07/2025
  • 32Q: 2200 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/12/2018 - 04/25/2022
  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 03/07/2018

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu