Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum | Busch-Reisinger Museum | Arthur M. Sackler Museum

Ingres made these studies in the final stage of preparation for his monumental altarpiece for the cathedral of Autun, a commission he took ten years to complete. The painting features the imminent martyrdom of Saint Symphorien, a Christian who was executed in the second century for refusing to worship the Roman gods.

Ingres made hundreds of drawings for the project, and the squaring in graphite, visible throughout the composition, reveals his process of transferring the figures from individual drawings to the canvas. It has been argued that these kinds of studies, which abandon spatial rationality and were never exhibited during the artist’s lifetime, were made primarily as an exploration of color relationships between figures. Nevertheless, Ingres continued to rework the figures’ contours and poses as well, in his characteristic practice of constant revision.

Object Number

1943.245

People

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French (Montauban 1780 - 1867 Paris)

Title

Studies for "The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien" (Saint, Mother, and Proconsul)

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting

Date

1833

Culture

French

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/229866

Medium

Oil over graphite and red chalk (stylus transfer), squared in graphite, on paper mounted on canvas, backed by a wood panel

Dimensions

sight: 60 x 47.6 cm (23 5/8 x 18 3/4 in.)
framed: 81.8 x 69.2 cm (32 3/16 x 27 1/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: l.r.: Ingres

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop

Accession Year

1943

Object Number

1943.245

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

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

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

"Mouvement des Arts et de la Curiosité. Tableaux et Dessins d'Ingres", La Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité (May 5 and 12, 1867), vol. V, p. 145, no. 7

Catalogue des tableaux, études peintes, dessins et croquis de J.A.D. Ingres exposé dans les galeries de l'Ecole impériale des Beaux-Arts, exh. cat., Ad. Laine et J. Havard (Paris, France, 1867), no. 12

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), p. 184, under no. 16

Téodor de Wyzewa, L'Oeuvre Peint de Jean-Dominique Ingres, Frédéric Gittler (Paris, France, 1907), pl. XXVII, p. iv, no. 27

Henry Lapauze, Ingres, sa vie & son oeuvre, G. Petit (Paris, France, 1911), pp. 303, 552

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, p. 388-412 n. 1

Georges Wildenstein, Ingres, Phaidon Press (London, England, 1954), pl. 74, no. 213

Pontus Grate, Deux critiques d'art de l'epoque Romantique: Gustave Planche et Theophile Thore, Almqvist & Wiksell (Stockholm, Sweden, 1959), p. 147

Martin Birnbaum, The Last Romantic (New York, NY, 1960), p. 188, no. 1

Ingres, exh. cat., Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1967), under no. 161, p. 228

Ingres: Centennial Exhibition, 1867-1967. Drawings, Watercolors and Oil Sketches from American Collections, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1967), under no. 60

Valentina N. Berezina, Zhan Ogrust Dominik Engr, Sovestkii khudozhnik (Leningrad, 1967), no. 52

Emilio Radius and Ettore Camesasca, L'opera completa di Ingres, Rizzoli (Milan, Italy, 1968), p. 107, no. 127d

Daniel Ternois and Ettore Camesasca, Tout l'oeuvre peint d'Ingres (Paris, France, 1971), p. 107, no. 128d

Daniel Ternois, Ingres, Editions Nathan (Paris, France, 1980), no. 227, repr. p. 182

Gaetan Picon, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Quai des Celestins, 4 (New York, NY, 1980), repr. in b/w p. 64

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. 36, p. 108, repr. b/w p. 110, in color p. 9

25 Great Masters of Modern Art: Ingres, Kodansha (Tokyo, Japan, 1981), repr. in color no. 63

Hilton Brown, "Academic Art Education and Studio Practices", American Artist (February 1985), ill. p. 52

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. 199, p. 175, repr. in b/w

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. 67, color plate; pp. 112, 226, repr. b/w cat. no. 276

Annalisa Zanni, Ingres: catalogo completo dei dipinti, Cantini Editore (Florence, Italy, 1990), p. 108, under no. 85

[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), repr. in color pl. 210, p. 246

Barbara Maria Stafford, Artful Science: Enlightenment, Entertainment,and the Eclipse of Visual Education, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA, 1994), repr. in b/w p. 214, fig. 151

[Unidentified article], The Harvard Review of Philosophy (Spring 1995), vol. V, repr. in color on cover

Georges Vigne, Dessins d'Ingres: Catalogue raisonné des dessins du musée de Montauban, Gallimard/Reunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1995), pp. 106 above no. 518, 114 under no. 568

Georges Vigne, Ingres, Citadelles & Mazenod and Abbeville Press (Paris, France; New York, NY, 1995), pp. 189, 192, repr. as fig. 158

Valérie Bajou, Monsieur Ingres, Editions Adam Biro (Paris, France, 1999), pp. 237-239, repr. in color fig. 165

Gary Tinterow and Philip Conisbee, Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1999), pp. 275, 282, 284, 286-7

Andrew Carrington Shelton, "Art, Politics, and the Politics of Art: Ingres's Saint Symphorien at the 1834 Salon", The Art Bulletin (December 2001), vol. LXXXIII no. 4, pp. 711-739, p. 715, repr. as fig. 4

Daniel Ternois, Lettres d’Ingres à Marcotte d’Argenteuil: dictionnaire, Librairie des Arts et Métiers-Ed. Jacques Laget (Nogent-le-Roi, France, 2001), p. 149 n. 25

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. 70, pp. 183-187, repr. in color

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. 70, pp. 191-195, repr. in color

"The Object of Art Museums", Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, ed. James Cuno, Princeton University Press/Harvard University Art Museums (Princeton, NJ / Cambridge, MA, 2004), pp. 49-75, p. 64, repr. as fig. 7

Vincent Pomarède, Stéphane Guégan, Louis-Antoine Prat, and Eric Bertin, Ingres 1780-1867, exh. cat., Editions Gallimard (Paris, France, 2006), pp. 241-242, repr. as ill. 174

Susan L. Siegfried, Ingres: Painting Reimagined, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven, 2009), p. 361, repr. in b/w p. 362 as fig. 217

Louis-Antoine Prat, Le dessin français au XIXe siècle, Somogy Éditions d'Art (Paris, 2011), p. 179

Tableaux, etudes peintes, dessins et croquis de J.-A.-D. Ingres peintre d'histoire, sénateur, membre de l'Institut, École Impériale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 04/10/1867 - 12/31/1867

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

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

Masterpieces of European Art, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/22/1985 - 09/15/1985

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

HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 08 Rotation 2), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/23/2008 - 11/16/2008

HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 09 Rotation 2), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/16/2009 - 11/08/2009

32Q: 2200 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Google Art Project

• 1943.246

  Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

  Studies for "The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien" (Lictors, Stone Thrower, and Spectator)

  Paintings
• 1943.845

  Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

  The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien

  Drawings
• Straus.7761

  Artist of original: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

  X-radiograph(s) of "Studies from Saint Symphorien Series"

  Photographs

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