Ingres’s characteristic distortion of anatomy is apparent in this drawing, as the impossibly long arms and extreme downward slope of Madame Bertin’s shoulders defy proportion. Her face—framed by glossy, sausage-shaped ringlets—bears a soft, friendly expression, testifying to the Bertin family’s close relationship with the artist. The portrait forms a pair with that of her husband (2012.150.13), to whom Ingres dedicated this sensitive likeness.
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Artist:Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (French, Montauban 1780–1867 Paris)
Date:1843
Medium:Graphite on wove paper
Dimensions:Sheet: 13 7/16 x 10 1/4 in. (34.2 x 26 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2012
Accession Number:2012.150.14
Signature: Signed and dedicated at lower left: Ingres Del. / à Monsieur Armand Bertin / 1843.
The sitter's husband, Armand Bertin (French), Paris, until his death, 1854; his daughter Mme Jules Bapst, née Sophie Bertin (French), Paris, until her death, 1893; her daughter, Mme Georges Patinot, née Cécile Bapst (French), Paris, until her death, 1917; her daughter, Mlle Suzanne Patinot (French), Paris, until her death, 1969; M. and Mme Jean-Claude Delafon, Paris (French); Marc Blondeau, Paris, until 1988; sold to Wrightsman; Mrs. Charles Wrightsman (American), New York, from 1988
Galerie André Weil, Paris. "Exposition Ingres, maître du dessin français," June 2, 1949–June 25, 1949.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," November 26, 2012–February 24, 2013.
Naef 392
André Gide "Promenade au Salon d'Automne." Gazette des Beaux-Arts. 3rd ser, 34, December 1, 1905, ill. opposite p. 476.
Max Dollfus Histoire et généalogie de la famille Dollfus de Mulhouse, 1450-1908. Mulhouse, 1909, ill. between pp. 352-53.
Exposition Ingres, maître du dessin français. Exh. cat., Galerie André Weil, Paris, June 2-25, 1949. Paris, 1949, cat. no. 68.
Daniel Ternois Les dessins d'Ingres au Musée de Montauban, les portraits. Inventaire général des dessins des Musées de province. vol. 3, Paris, 1959, vol. 3, p. 10.
Hans Naef "Eighteen Portrait Drawings by Ingres." Master Drawings. vol. 4, 1966, pp. 269, 282, no. 14, pl. 13.
Hans Naef Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres. 4 vols., Bern, 1977-1980, vol. 5, pp. 272-73, no. 392, and vol. 3, chap. 143, pp. 133-35.
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, p. 320, fig. 183.
Everett Fahy, Pierre Rosenberg, Elizabeth E. Barker, George R. Goldner et al. The Wrightsman Pictures. New York and New Haven, 2005, cat. no. 89, ill.
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