Ingres (1780–1867) as a Young Man

Laurence-Augustine Jubé Héquet (Madame Héquet)

ca. 1850–60 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

Artists typically sketched out key components of their compositions onto their canvases in graphite or white chalk as guides before they began to apply oil paint. Self-portraits often depict artists at this moment while their canvas sits ready, propped up on the easel in a clever comment on the creation of the finished self-portrait itself. In 1804 a leading figure of French painting, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, completed a self-portrait, of which this is a faithful copy. Copying was a typical means for painters to hone their skills. In this case, it was executed by an amateur painter, Laurence-Augustine Jubé Héquet, the wife of a composer and collector who owned Ingres’s original for much of the nineteenth century.

Artist

Laurence-Augustine Jubé Héquet (Madame Héquet)

Date

ca. 1850–60

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Bequest of Grace Rainey Rogers, 1943