Add to Collection

Add this item to an existing or new collection.
Harvard Art Museums
Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
Study of a standing nude woman and one partial study on light brown toned canvas

At center is a full length study in oils of a nude woman. She stands facing us with her left foot in front of her right, her weight on her back foot. She tilts her head down and to her right, her long brown hair pulled back in a braid. She reaches behind her back with her right hand to touch her left arm at her side. A rough shadow in brown outlines her figure, and just above and to the right is an incomplete study of a similar pose, in which her head tilts up and to her left.

Gallery Text

This oil, illustrating a scene from the Italian epic poem Orlando Furioso, is a study for a painting intended for the royal residences at Versailles. It is based on classically inspired images of Andromeda — chained to a rock, awaiting rescue by the hero Perseus — that Ingres had seen in Rome. Its naturalism and immediacy suggest that Ingres worked from a live model.

The central figure stands in statuesque contrapposto (half rotated, with her weight on one leg), a brown shadow surrounding her like a niche. Her unfinished right hand reaches back and touches her left wrist, as if to confirm the physical reality of her flesh. The gesture is repeated by a second figure, whose attenuated torso suggests a sculptural fragment. The flesh-colored background focuses attention on the sensitive modulations of light and dark through which Ingres, like Perseus, has “liberated” the figures — in this case, from the two-dimensional surface.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.248
People
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French (Montauban 1780 - 1867 Paris)
Title
Study for "Roger Freeing Angelica"
Other Titles
Former Title: Study for "Roger Freeing Angelica" (so-called "Andromeda")
Former Title: Study for the painting of Angelique and Medor
Former Title: Study for Andromeda
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1818
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230109

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
47 x 37.2 cm (18 1/2 x 14 5/8 in.)
framed: 66.5 x 58 cm (26 3/16 x 22 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Given by the artist to Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche, 1831, by descent (?); to Joseph-Carle-Paul-Horace Delaroche (his son). [Wildenstein & Co., New York], sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, 1940, 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
1943.248
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.

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.

Publication History

  • 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), pps. 208-209, under no. 32
  • 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
  • Georges Wildenstein, Ingres, Phaidon Press (London, England, 1954), p. 188, no. 126, repr. in b/w as pl. 17
  • Norman Schlenoff, Ingres, ses sources littéraires, Presses Universitaires de France (Paris, France, 1956), pl. XVI, facing p. 129
  • Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogue, French School, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art (London, England, 1957), p. 119, no. 9
  • Ingres and Degas: Two Classical Draughtsmen, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1961), no. 12
  • Daniel Ternois, Inventaire des collections publiques francaises, 11, Montauban, Musee Ingres, peintures, Ingres et son temps., Editions des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1965), inventaire, under no. 180
  • Ingres, exh. cat., Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 1967), pp. 152 and 154, under nos. 107, 108
  • Ingres: Centennial Exhibition, 1867-1967. Drawings, Watercolors and Oil Sketches from American Collections, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1967), no. 50, repr.
  • Classics in Art series: Ingres, Rizzoli Editore Corporation (New York, NY, 1968), repr. in color full page, tav. LXIV
  • Emilio Radius and Ettore Camesasca, L'opera completa di Ingres, Rizzoli (Milan, Italy, 1968), no. 99b, pl. LXIV
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 240
  • Martin Davies, French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, etc., National Gallery of Art (London, England, 1970), p. 79, n. 9, under no. 3292
  • Daniel Ternois and Ettore Camesasca, Tout l'oeuvre peint d'Ingres (Paris, France, 1971), no. 100b, pl. LXIV
  • Gianni Rizzoni and Fiorella Minervino, Ingres, Mondadori (Milan, Italy, 1976), p. 27, repr.
  • H. Harvard Arnason, History of Modern Art: painting, sculpture, architecture, Prentice Hall (New York, NY, 1977), repr. p. 16, no. 9, b/w
  • Norman Ziff, Paul Delaroche: A Study in Nineteenth-Century French History Painting (New York, NY, 1977), p. 117 n. 103
  • Jean Sutherland Boggs, "Variations on the Nude", Apollo (June 1978), vol. CVII, no. 196, pp. 487-489, p. 488
  • Daniel Ternois, Ingres, Editions Nathan (Paris, France, 1980), p. 178, no. 137, repr.
  • Gaetan Picon, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Quai des Celestins, 4 (New York, NY, 1980), repr. b/w p. 22
  • Jean Clay, Le romantisme, Réalités-Hachette (Paris, 1980), p. 134, rer. p. 133
  • 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. 23, pp. 75-76, repr. in b/w, p. 77; text p. 14
  • Patricia Condon, Ingres, In Pursuit of Perfection: the Art of J.-A.-D. Ingres, exh. cat., Speed Art Museum (Louisville, KY, 1983), pp. 94, 243, 246, 248
  • Hilton Brown, "Academic Art Education and Studio Practices", American Artist (February 1985), ill. p. 46
  • "Ingres", The Great Artists: A Marshall Cavendish Weekly Collection (Sussex, England, 1985), no. 18, repr. in color p. 553
  • 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. as no. 263
  • Annalisa Zanni, Ingres: catalogo completo dei dipinti, Cantini Editore (Florence, Italy, 1990), p. 84, under cat. 64
  • Michele Haddad, La Divine et l'Impure: Le Nu au XIXe, Jaguar Editions (Paris, France, 1990), repr. in color p. 16; text p. 18
  • John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Random House (New York, NY, 1991), vol. 2, repr. p. 339
  • [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 b/w fig. 127, p. 162
  • Georges Vigne, Ingres, Citadelles & Mazenod and Abbeville Press (Paris, France; New York, NY, 1995), p. 144, fig. 119, p. 192
  • Dirk Pauwels, "Roma 1817 / refait à Bruxelles 1834: De Heilige Familie van François-Joseph Navez (1787-1869), een onuitgegeven compositieschets", Jaarboek, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (1996), p. 335; repr. in b/w p. 336, as fig. 5
  • Paul de Roux, Ingres, Herscher (Paris, France, 1996), pp. 56-7, fig. 14
  • Valérie Bajou, Monsieur Ingres, Editions Adam Biro (Paris, France, 1999), pp. 155-158, repr. in color fig. 110
  • Daniel Ternois, Lettres d’Ingres à Marcotte d’Argenteuil: dictionnaire, Librairie des Arts et Métiers-Ed. Jacques Laget (Nogent-le-Roi, France, 2001), p. 202, n. 4
  • 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. 60, pp. 170-172, 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. 60, pp. 178-180, repr. in color
  • Vincent Pomarède, Stéphane Guégan, Louis-Antoine Prat, and Eric Bertin, Ingres 1780-1867, exh. cat., Editions Gallimard (Paris, France, 2006), p. 180, repr. as ill. 141
  • Olga Plaszczewska, Przestrzenie komparatystyki-italianizm, Wydawnictow Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego (Krakow, Poland, 2010), repr. as ill. 14
  • Cavalier d'Arpino to Nolde: Watercolors, Drawings and Oil Sketches by European Masters, auct. cat. (Hamburg, Germany, 2013), under no. 19, reproduced
  • Leighton House Museum, A Victorian Obsession: The Pérez Simón Collection at Leighton House Museum, exh. cat., ed. Daniel Robbins, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (London, 2014), p. 153, fig. 51
  • Charles Hindlip, An Auctioneer's Lot: Triumphs & Disasters at Christie's, Third Millennium Publishing Limited (London, 2016), p. 25, repr.
  • Ortrud Westheider, Christiane Lange, Nathalie Lachmann, and Jens-Henning Ullner, Modigliani: Modern Gazes, exh. cat., Prestel (Munich, 2023), pp. 445-45, repr. p. 45 as fig. 2

Exhibition History

  • 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
  • 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 11 Rotation 2), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, 10/07/2011 - 11/05/2011
  • 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 07/28/2021

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