Ingres made this portrait of Merry Joseph Blondel, his fellow Prix de Rome winner, the year Blondel arrived in Rome. The Villa Medici, where the two artists resided and studied, appears in the background of the drawing. Although they trained with rival teachers—Blondel with Jean-Baptiste Regnault and Ingres with Jacques Louis David—and continued to compete for positions and honors throughout their careers, the two artists developed a lifelong friendship.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Merry Joseph Blondel (1781–1853)
Artist:Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (French, Montauban 1780–1867 Paris)
Sitter:Merry Joseph Blondel (French, Paris 1781–1853 Paris)
Date:1809
Medium:Graphite
Dimensions:6 15/16 x 5 1/2 in. (17.6 x 14 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Bequest of Grace Rainey Rogers, 1943
Object Number:43.85.8
Signature: Lower left: "Ingres/à rome 1809"
Merry Joseph Blondel (French); Madame Louise-Émilie Blondel née Delafontaine (French); Madame Alfred Wittersheim; Wittersheim family; Wildenstein & Co., Inc.
Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums. "Ingres Centennial Exhibition, 1867-1967: Drawings, Watercolors, and Oil Sketches from American Collections," February 12, 1967–April 9, 1967.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch," October 5, 1999–January 2, 2000.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In the Orbit of Jacques Louis David: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints," January 20–May 31, 2022.
Naef 54
Emile Galichon "Dessins de M. Ingres, deuxième série." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. vol. 11, July 1, 1861, p. 46.
Charles Blanc Ingres, sa vie et ses ouvrages. Paris, 1870, p. 235.
Henri Delaborde Ingres, sa vie, ses travaux, sa doctrine, d'après les notes manuscrites et les lettres du maître. Paris, 1870, cat. no. 261, p. 291.
Louise Burroughs "Drawings by Ingres." in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. vol. 4, New York, February 1946, p. 161, ill.
Nineteenth century French drawings. San Francisco, 1947, cat. no. 4, p. 14, ill.
Agnes Mongan Ingres, Twenty-Four Drawings. New York, 1947, cat. no. 3, ill.
Hans Naef Rome vue par Ingres. Lausanne, 1960, p. 27, fn. 52.
Agnes Mongan, Hans Naef Ingres Centennial Exhibition, 1867-1967. Exh. cat., Feb. 12-April 9. Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1967, cat. no. 15, ill.
Linda Boyer Gillies, Colta Ives, Jacob Bean Classicism and Romanticism: French Drawings and Prints, 1800-1860. Ex. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, cat. no. 41, p. 8.
Hans Naef Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres. 4 vols., Bern, 1977-1980, Vol. IV, p. 102, Kat. 54, repr.; vol. I, p. 189, Abb. 1, ill.
Gary Tinterow, Philip Conisbee, Christopher Riopelle, Hans Naef, Robert Rosenblum, Andrew Carrington Shelton, Georges Vigne, Rebecca A. Rabinow Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch. Exh. cat., National Gallery, London, January 27-April 25, 1999, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., May 23-August 22, 1999, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 5, 1999-January 2, 2000. New York, 1999, cat. no. 41, pp. 164-5, ill.
Vincent Pomarède, Stéphane Guégan, Louis-Antoine Prat, Eric Bertin Ingres, 1780-1867. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre, Paris, February 24-May 15, 2006. Paris, 2006, fig. no. 102, pp. 85, 150, ill.
Andrew Carrington Shelton "The First Retrospective Exhibition of the Drawings of J.-A.-D. Ingres (1861): Appendix" Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide. no. 2, 21, Summer 2022, cat. no. Ser. 2.28.
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