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Lot Essay
The present drawing is related to one of the artist’s best-known paintings, ‘La Source’ (Musée d’Orsay, long-term loan to the Louvre, inv. RF 219), derived from his own Venus Anadyomene in Chantilly (Musée Condé, inv. PE 433). Started in Florence in 1820, Ingres left ‘La Source’ unfinished until he took it up again in 1855, and finished it the following year.
Seven other drawings have been connected to the work (see exhib. cat., Paris, École Nationale Supérieure de Beaux-Arts, 2006, op. cit., p. 246, ill. 3; Ingres 1780-1867, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2006, p. 369; sale Piasa, Paris, 1 December 2008, lot 141; G. Vigne, Dessins d’Ingres. Catalogue raisonné des dessins de Montauban, Paris, 1995, nos. 869-871, ill.). The only drawing from the Florentine period is the vigorous study at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (inv. B1055; see exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2006, op. cit., no. 170, ill.). Drawing on almost transparent paper which allowed him to make a tracing of a previous sketch was common practice for Ingres. The squaring of the sheet seems to have been erased for aesthetic reasons, leaving better visible the purity of line of his study.
Seven other drawings have been connected to the work (see exhib. cat., Paris, École Nationale Supérieure de Beaux-Arts, 2006, op. cit., p. 246, ill. 3; Ingres 1780-1867, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2006, p. 369; sale Piasa, Paris, 1 December 2008, lot 141; G. Vigne, Dessins d’Ingres. Catalogue raisonné des dessins de Montauban, Paris, 1995, nos. 869-871, ill.). The only drawing from the Florentine period is the vigorous study at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (inv. B1055; see exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2006, op. cit., no. 170, ill.). Drawing on almost transparent paper which allowed him to make a tracing of a previous sketch was common practice for Ingres. The squaring of the sheet seems to have been erased for aesthetic reasons, leaving better visible the purity of line of his study.