Joseph-Antoine Moltedo (born 1775) | Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelIn its unrelenting realism, exaggerated mathematical perspective, and rigorous local color, the portrait of Moltedo exemplifies Ingres's gothic or primitivist early style. It belongs to a series of portraits of French officials in Napoleonic Rome painted between 1810 and 1814. They are distinguished by the inclusion of Roman views as backdrops for the sitters, as well as by stormy gray skies—a Romantic conceit that serves as a foil to the calm and secure expressions of the men portrayed.

Joseph-Antoine Moltedo was a Corsican who served as director of the Roman post office from 1803 to 1814. An inventor of sorts, Moltedo designed a fire pump and a hemp-weaving machine and ran a lead foundry at Tivoli.

Provenance?Moltedo family, Corsica; ?Princess Vera Koudacheff (sale, Christie's, London, December 1, 1906, no. 146); Théodore Duret, Paris (sold to Havemeyer); Mrs. H. O. (Louisine W.) Havemeyer, New York (by 1916–d. 1929; cat., 1931, pp. 136–37, ill.)

Exhibition History

New York. Museum of French Art, French Institute. "Special Dedication Exhibition of French Art," January 5, 1926, no. 21 (as "Portrait of Chevalier X," a Cousin of Napoleon I, anonymous loan).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The H. O. Havemeyer Collection," March 10–November 2, 1930, no. 72 (as "Portrait of a Gentleman") [2nd ed., 1958, no. 154, as "Joseph Antoine Moltedo?"].

New York. M. Knoedler & Co.. "Loan Exhibition in Honour of Royal Cortissoz," December 1–20, 1941, no. 21.

Seattle Art Museum. March 7–May 6, 1951, unnumbered cat.?

Paris. Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris. "Ingres," October 27, 1967–January 29, 1968, no. 50 (as "Joseph Antoine Moltedo").

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 16–November 1, 1970, unnumbered cat. (p. 73).

Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," May 22–July 27, 1975, no. 55.

Moscow. State Pushkin Museum. "100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum," August 28–November 2, 1975, no. 55.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ingres at the Metropolitan," December 13, 1988–March 19, 1989, no catalogue (as "Joseph Antoine Moltedo [born 1775]").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, no. A330.

London. National Gallery. "Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch," January 27–April 25, 1999, no. 27 (as "Joseph-Antoine Moltedo").

Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch," May 23–August 22, 1999, no. 27.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch," October 5, 1999–Janaury 2, 2000, no. 27.

Paris. Musée du Louvre. "Ingres: 1780–1867," February 24–May 15, 2006, no. 47.

References

Théophile Silvestre. Histoire des artistes vivants: Français et étrangers. Paris, 1856, p. 34.

Henri Delaborde. Ingres: Sa vie, ses travaux, sa doctrine. Paris, 1870, p. 254, no. 138.

J. Momméja. Ingres. Paris, [1907], p. 40.

Léonce Bénédite. "Les collections d'art aux États-Unis." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 23 (January–June 1908), pp. 164–65.

Henry Lapauze. Ingres: Sa vie & son oeuvre (1780–1867), d'après des documents inédits. Paris, 1911, pp. 102–3.

Louisine W. Havemeyer. Letter to Théodore Duret. October 20, 1916 [see Ref. Weitzenhoffer 1986].

Théodore Duret. Letter to Louisine W. Havemeyer. June 1, 1918 [see Ref. Stein and Wold 1993].

Special Dedication Exhibition of French Art. Exh. cat., Museum of French Art, French Institute. New York, 1926, p. 20, no. 21.

Royal Cortissoz. The Painter's Craft. New York, 1930, pp. 203–4, ill. opp. p. 202.

Frank Jewett Mather Jr. "The Havemeyer Pictures." The Arts 16 (March 1930), p. 470, 482, ill.

Bryson Burroughs. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings. 9th ed. New York, 1931, p. 176.

H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 136–37, ill.

Walter Pach. Ingres. New York, 1939, pp. 43–44, ill. opp. p. 38.

Georges Oberti. "Ingres et Multedo." Le petit écho de la Corse no. 20 (May 1954), p. 6, ill.

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 44, ill.

Georges Wildenstein. The Paintings of J. A. D. Ingres. 1st ed. 1954, p. 174, no. 71, pl. 22.

Georges Wildenstein. The Paintings of J. A. D. Ingres. 2nd revised ed. London, 1956, p. 174, no. 71, pl. 22.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX Century." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2, New York, 1966, pp. 5–7, ill.

Michel Laclotte. "L'année Ingres." Revue du Louvre et des musées de France nos. 4-5 (1967), p. 193.

Mathieu Méras. "Ingres et l'Italie." Bulletin du Musée Ingres no. 21 (July 1967), p. 18.

Daniel Ternois in Ingres. Exh. cat., Petit Palais. Paris, 1967, pp. 74–75, no. 50, ill.

Anita Brookner. "Ingres at the Petit Palais." Burlington Magazine 110 (February 1968), p. 95.

Emilio Radius Ettore Camesasca in L'opera completa di Ingres. Milan, 1968, pp. 92–93, no. 61, ill. p. 93 and colorpl. XVI.

Edith A. Standen in Masterpieces of Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. New York, [1970], p. 73, ill. (color).

100 Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum [in Russian]. Exh. cat., State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. Moscow, 1975, pp. 154–55, no. 55, ill.

Gianni Rizzoni. Ingres. Milan, 1976, p. 43, ill. [see Ref. Conisbee 1999].

Bernard Dunstan. "Looking at Paintings." American Artist 41 (August 1977), pp. 74–75, ill. (in b&w and color).

Jon Whiteley. Ingres. London, 1977, p. 39, no. 22, ill. (color).

Daniel Ternois. Ingres. Milan, 1980, pp. 24, 46, 72, 175, no. 69, ill. (b&w and color).

Hélène Toussaint. Les portraits d'Ingres: Peintures des musées nationaux. Paris, 1985, pp. 52, 138 n. 73.

Frances Weitzenhoffer. The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America. New York, 1986, pp. 238–39, 255, no. 160, ill.

Hélène Toussaint. "Les fonds de portraits d'Ingres: Peintures a fond de paysage." Bulletin du Musée Ingres nos. 63-64 (1990), pp. 22, 24 n. 9.

Annalisa Zanni. Ingres: catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1990, p. 48, no. 34, ill. (color).

Gretchen Wold in Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 350, no. A330, ill.

Georges Vigne. Ingres. New York, 1995, pp. 87, 90, 325, 327, 331 no. 57, fig. 60 (color).

Paul de Roux. Ingres. Paris, 1996, pp. 48–49, ill. p. 48 (detail) and colorpl. 9.

Valérie Bajou. Monsieur Ingres. Paris, 1999, pp. 109–10, 112–13, 184, 359 n. 20, colorpl. 67.

Philip Conisbee in Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1999, pp. 106, 122, 125–27, 135, 142, 146, 356, 526, no. 27, ill. (color).

Vincent Pomarède in Ingres: 1780–1867. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2006, pp. 151, 156, 188, 380–81, no. 47, ill. (color).

Gary Tinterow and Asher E. Miller in Ingres: 1780–1867. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2006, pp. 80–81, 86.

Gary Tinterow in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 9, 261–62, no. 7, ill. (color and bw).

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