Madame Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, née Madeleine Chapelle

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

1814 · Graphite on off-white wove paper · Drawings and Prints

Ingres and Madeleine Chapelle were introduced by her cousin and corresponded only briefly before Chapelle moved to Rome, where the artist was living at the time; they were married less than a year later. In that brief period, Ingres made four portraits of her, including this one, in which she gazes steadily and lovingly at her soon-to-be husband. Her fuller figure here suggests that she may have been pregnant. The couple’s only offspring was sadly stillborn the year of the portrait’s execution.

Artist

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Date

1814

Medium

Graphite on off-white wove paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, in honor of Philippe de Montebello, 2004