DescriptionIngres's appealing drawing presents the three daughters of Austria's ambassador in Rome, Prince Wenzel von Kaunitz-Rietberg. The young women, portrayed at ages thirteen to seventeen, are shown in the discreet luxury of Empire fashion in a setting that suggests the privileged, cultured world to which they were accustomed. They cluster gracefully around the piano, probably in the family music room where Paganini gave a private recital in 1819, just a year after their portrait sitting. Indeed, it may have been Ingres's passion for music that first won him an invitation to the Kaunitz residence.

Although at the time of this work Ingres was not yet widely known as an artist, he was clearly at the height of his form as a portraitist. The precise subtlety of his draftsmanship, his almost musical distribution of accents, and his tender depiction of youth are exquisite. Such a portrait might be given credit for helping to secure desirably titled husbands, as all three daughters did, eventually, despite the fact that their father's philandering brought him the disgrace of judicial review in Vienna in 1822 and, ultimately, exile.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and MarkingsSignature: [lower left]: Ingres del.; [lower right]: rome 1818
Marks: [at lower right]: the Anton Schmid collection stamp (Lugt 2330b)
Inscriptions: [at lower left, a note for the framer]: Partie dans le cadre [This section under the frame]

ProvenanceFürst and Fürstin von Kauntiz-Rietberg (Austrian); Fürstin Anton Karl Pálffy (Austrian); Nicolaus Palffy (Schloss Marchegg, Austria,)1931; Anton Schmid (Oderfurt, Czechoslovakia 1904 - Vienna); H. M. Calmann, London (British, London 1899 - 1982 London); Alfred Strölin (1966-1974); Bruno de Bayser (French); Donor: Mrs. Charles Wrightsman

Catalogue RaisonneNaef 220; London,Wash.,New York 1999, no.77