CHANTILLY.- A successful artist in the first half of the 19th century, Jean-Auguste- Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) was an unclassifiable and frequently visionary painter. Behind his apparent classicism lay an originality and search for perfection that continue to fascinate to this day.
Where did this success come from? Following the advent of the July Monarchy (1830-1848), Ingres received considerable backing from the Orlans family, which would result in some of his greatest masterpieces. Those close ties will form the central thread of this major exhibition in Chantilly, which will explore how the prince of artists became the artist of princes.
Held in collections in France and beyond, paintings and drawings commissioned or collected by the princes of Orlans have been brought to Chantilly and presented alongside studies and variants. Together, they offer an insight into the perfectionist and methodical work of one of France’s greatest ever painters.
New analyses of some of the artist’s most important masterpieces, as well as unpublished and rediscovered works, shed new light on the unique personality of one of the greatest figures in the history of art.
THE ARTIST AND HIS PRINCES
The story begins with the special relationship that Ingres enjoyed with the heir to the throne. One of his greatest patrons was Duke Ferdinand of Orlans (1810-1842), Prince Royal of France and eldest son of King Louis-Philippe, who in 1839 acquired a work Ingres had sent back to Paris from Rome, Œdipe et le Sphinx (1808, Muse du Louvre, Paris), and then commissioned him to paint the famous Stratonice (1835-1840, Muse Cond, Chantilly) and his own portrait (1842, Muse du Louvre, Paris). The three masterpieces – each indelibly linked to this most famous of Ingres’ admirers – are being exhibited together here for the first time.
Following the accidental death of their son the Prince Royal on 13 July 1842, at just 32 years of age, King Louis-Philippe and Queen Marie- Amlie chose to ask Ingres to create the cartoons for the stained glass windows at the Saint-Ferdinand chapel, which was constructed less than a year on from the tragedy on the very spot where the duke had died, near Porte Maillot in Paris. For the windows, Ingres produced full- length portraits of the royal family’s patron saints – including Saint Philip, Saint Louis, Saint Amlie and Saint Ferdinand – bearing visual traits characteristic of the Orlans family. The following year (1844), the bereaving royals commissioned the artist to reproduce his work for the Orlans family tomb at the Royal Chapel in Dreux, having, in 1842, asked to him to create a large religious painting for the chapel at the Chteau de Bizy.
The Prince Royal’s younger brother, the Duke of Montpensier, also had a close affinity with Ingres, commissioning a work from him in 1847 (Muse Royal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels) which is presented in an entirely new light here.
CHANTILLY: THE ARTIST’S SANCTUARY
In October 1847, Henri d’Orlans, the Duke of Aumale (1822-1897), commissioned Ingres to create another set of stained glass windows, this time for the chapel at the Chteau de Chantilly. At the time the chteau, which had been bequeathed to the Duke by his great-uncle, the last Prince of Cond, was in need of restoration following the destruction wrought by the Revolution.
In part, it was Ingres’ special relationship with the Duke of Orlans that lay behind the acquisitions of his work by the Duke of Aumale, one of the greatest French art collectors of the 19th century and the man who would ultimately donate the Chteau de Chantilly to the Institut de France. The Duke of Aumale purchased no fewer than five major paintings and a large drawing by the artist, all now housed at the Muse Cond in Chantilly, in memory of his elder brother following the latter’s tragic death. Visitors are able to see a completely new side to these masterpieces, as they are being exhibited for the first time alongside preparatory drawings and variants that offer unique, behind-the-scenes insight into the master’s working method.
The exhibition also reveals that, following Ingres’ death, the Duke of Aumale wanted to acquire Homre difi (1865, Muse du Louvre, Paris), one of the master’s most important works and, in some respects, his artistic legacy – a project that was ultimately abandoned due to political events.
A QUEST FOR PERFECTION
A true perfectionist with an acute sensitivity to criticism, Ingres cut the figure of an eternally dissatisfied artist on an ongoing quest for ideal beauty, constantly returning to his compositions, modifying and enhancing them, sometimes after several decades.
Recent scientific analysis (including X-ray, ultraviolet and infrared imaging) conducted at the Louvre by the Centre de Recherches et de Restauration des Muses de France (C2RMF) reveals how Ingres reworked and altered his greatest masterpieces, such as L’Autoportrait dit vingt-quatre ans (Muse Cond, Chantilly), which he started in 1804 and completed around 1850, or the great Vnus Anadyomne (Muse Cond, Chantilly), begun in 1808 in Rome and completed in 1848. Another perfect example is that of the Duke of Orlans commissioned Antiochus et Stratonice (Muse Cond, Chantilly): initially inspired by his master David (1774, cole nationale suprieure des Beaux- Arts, Paris), Ingres became caught up in the pursuit of the ideal composition, painting up to seven different versions. Each work was the result of detailed research; Ingres was a talented sketcher who made numerous drawings of the overall picture and its individual components, and the exhibition presents the sketches and preparatory studies that lay behind each of his most prominent works.
ONE-OFF LOANS
The exhibition is ordered chronologically, comprising over 110 works offering a panoramic overview of the artist’s career: from his early years in Paris, through his two stays in Italy, up until his later works. Thanks to the exceptional support of the Muse Ingres Bourdelle in Montauban, nearly 40 of the master’s preparatory works have been assembled in order to trace the genesis of the exhibition’s main paintings. Additionally, the Frick Collection has loaned the celebrated Portrait de Louise, princesse de Broglie, future comtesse d’Haussonville, a depiction of one of the most prominent figures in the Orlanist movement, which leaves the New York museum for the first time.
A number of other major museums, in France and from overseas, have participated in the project by offering loans. In France, they include the Muse du Louvre, the Muse d’Orsay, the Chteau de Versailles, the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, the Bibliothque Nationale de France, the cole Nationale Suprieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, the Institut de France, the Muse Ingres Bourdelle in Montauban and the Muse Fabre in Montpellier. Participants from further afield include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Frick Collection and the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls (United States); the Barber Institute in Birmingham (United Kingdom); the Kunstmuseum in Bern and the Napoleonmuseum in Arenenberg (Switzerland); the Muse Royal des Beaux-Arts (Belgium); the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and the Museum of Amsterdam (Netherlands), in addition to various private collections. The scientific catalogue accompanying the exhibition, which features contributions from major specialists in the field, is aimed at further developing our knowledge of the artist. The project presents an opportunity to discover relatively lesser-known but still hugely significant works, some of which are being shown in France for the very first time.
CURATORS:
General curator: Mathieu Deldicque, Chief Conservator of Heritage, Director of the Muse Cond
Scientific curator: Nicole Garnier-Pelle, Honorary General Conservator of Heritage
