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Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing an off-the-shoulder, black gown stands in front of a maroon-red wall in this vertical portrait painting. Her body is angled to our left, but she turns her round face to us. Her dark gray eyes seem out of focus, looking slightly off to either side of us, under faint brows. Her nose is straight, her pink lips closed over a pillowy chin, and her cheeks are lightly blushed. Her black hair is parted down the middle and smoothed to each side, pulled back and framed by a garland of flowers that drapes from the crown of her head down to either side of her chin like parentheses. The garland is made of peach-colored roses, burgundy-red flowers, and sage-green leaves. Her sloping shoulders are pale and smooth. The sleeves of the black dress wrapping around her upper arms are edged with a wide band of lace. The edge of a white undergarment is visible along the top of the black dress, which has a tightly fitting bodice. The skirt billows out at the narrow waist to fall in thick, heavy folds off the bottom edge of the painting. A large, oval, red jewel is set into a silvery-gold brooch at the front center of her neckline. Dimples are visible across the backs of both pudgy hands. With her right hand, on our left, she holds the end of a long strand of pearls encircling her neck. On that wrist is a gold bracelet with coin-like disks hanging from thick, gold links, and she wears a gold ring with a pearl and blue and red jewels on that ring finger. Her other arm hangs by her side. There, she wears two bracelets, one of gold and pearl, the other with a medallion of celestial blue enamel surrounding a pearl, also set in gold. Two gold rings with red stones are on the third finger of that hand, and a silver ring with a crest is on her pinky finger. With that hand she holds a closed fan with silver and gold sticks, and the end of a sheer black shawl that wraps up across her back and over the other shoulder. The top two-thirds of the wall behind her is covered by a pattern of stylized wine-red flowers against a muted maroon-red background. A wooden rail divides the top section of the wall from the gray paneling below. A few objects in the lower left corner, seen beyond the edge of her skirt, are difficult to make out, but could include a richly decorated gold and upholstered chair, a glove, and a white, lace-edged handkerchief. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner of the red patterned wall: “I.A.D. INGRES P.XIT ANO 1851.” The woman’s name appears in the upper right, “M.E INES MOITESSIER NÉE DE FOUCAULD.”

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Madame Moitessier, 1851

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 56

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 147 x 100 cm (57 7/8 x 39 3/8 in.)

framed: 176.5 x 131.4 x 8.9 cm (69 1/2 x 51 3/4 x 3 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1946.7.18

Overview

When his friend Marcotte first suggested that Ingres paint Ines Moitessier, the wife of a financier and jurist, he demurred. Ingres changed his mind after being struck by her "terrible et belle tête" (terrible and beautiful head.) The author Théophile Gautier described her as "Junolike," and Ingres presents her with the imposing remoteness of a Roman goddess. Her stance is severe and strongly silhouetted, her monumental shoulders stark ivory against the somber, restricted colors around her.

Ingres insisted on painting every detail from life, so he could achieve, in his words, "the faithful rendering of nature that leads to art." With minute accuracy he has recorded the light–absorbing darkness of her lace and velvet costume, the gleam of gold jewelry, the gloss of her elaborate coiffure. The emphatic reality of these details contrasts with her unfocused gaze, contributing to the sense that she is somehow removed from life.

Ingres began to pose Madame Moitessier in the 1840s, but the work languished. This second attempt was begun after the aging artist—he was 71—had been roused from depression by the prospect of his remarriage in 1852.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/french-paintings-nineteenth-century.pdf

Inscription

lower center left: I.A.D. INGRES P.XIT ANO 1851; upper right: M.E INES MOITESSIER / NÉE DE FOUCAULD.

Provenance

The sitter, Marie-Clothilde-Inès, née de Foucauld [1821-1897], and her husband, Paul Sigisbert Moitessier [1799-1889]; their elder daughter, Clothilde-Marie-Catherine, comtesse de Flavigny [1843-1914], by 1911;[1] her sister, Françoise-Camille-Marie, vicomtesse Taillepied de Bondy [1850-1934], by 1921;[2] probably her son, François,[3] comte Taillepied de Bondy [b. 1875]; sold 1935 to (Paul Rosenberg & Co., London, New York, and Paris); sold 1945 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1946 to NGA.

[1] Illustrated in Henry LaPauze, Ingres, sa vie et son oeuvre (1780-1867) d'apres documents inédites, Paris, 1911: 440-446, 452-461, as in the collection of the comtesse de Flavigny.

[2] Cited as belonging to Mme la Vicomtesse Olivier de Bondy in Exhibition Ingres, Association Franco-Américaine, Chambre Syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1921, no. 44.

[3] Information in NGA curatorial files, and from Paul Rosenberg and other sources refer to Marie de Bondy's son as "Comte O. de Bondy." However, published sources on the Taillepied de Bondy family list Marie's sons as François, Robert [predeceases Marie], and Jean; Marie's husband, Comte Olivier de Bondy, predeceases her as well. As the painting was acquired by Paul Rosenberg & Co. in the year following Marie de Bondy's death, it is most likely to have passed through the hands of François, her elder surviving son. As the oldest son, François is also likely to have "Olivier" as part of his given name, though it has not appeared in published genealogical sources.

[4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1316.

Associated Names

Flavigny, Clotilde-Marie-Catherine, comtesse de
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Moitessier, Marie-Clothilde-Inès
Moitessier, Paul Sigisbert
Rosenberg & Co., Paul P.
Taillepied de Bondy, François, comte
Taillepied de Bondy, Françoise-Camille-Marie, vicomtesse

Exhibition History

1855: Exposition universelle, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1855, no. 3366

1921: Exhibition Ingres, Association Franco-Américaine, Chambre Syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1921, no. 44, repro.

1936: Exhibition of Masters of French 19th Century Painting, Anglo French Art & Travel Society, New Burlington Galleries, London, 1936, no. 2

1937: Chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art français, Palais National des Arts, Paris, 1937, no. 351

1938: Honderd Jaar Fransche Kunst, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1938, no. 137, repro.

1939: La Peinture Française au XIX siècle, Musej Kneza Pavla (Museum of Prince Paul), Belgrade, 1939, no. 67, repro.

1939: La Pintura Francesa de David a nuestros días, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, 1939, no. 76

1939: La Pintura Francesa de David a nuestros días, Salon Nacional de Bella Artes, Montevideo, 1939, no. 13, repro.

1940: Exposiçao de Pintura Francesa, seculos XIX e XX, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janiero, 1940, no. 56

1940: The Painting of France since the French Revolution, M.H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, December 1940-January 1941; November 1941-January 1942, no. 59

1941: Loan Exhibition of French Painting Presenting a Survey of the Develpment of Modern Art, The Fine Arts Gallery, San Diego, 1941, no. 1

1941: Masterpieces of French Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1941, no. 85

1944: Loan Exhibition of Great Paintings in Aid of Allied Merchant Seamen, The Art Gallery of Toronto, 1944, no. 36, repro.

1946: Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 882.

1999: Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch, National Gallery, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1999-2000, no. 133, as Madame Paul-Sigisbert Moitessier, née Marie-Clotilde-Inès de Foucauld, Standing.

2006: Ingres 1780-1867, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2006, no. 160, repro.

2015: Ingres, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2015-2016, no. 65, repro.

Bibliography

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1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 146, color repro.

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1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 74-75, color repro.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 62, repro.

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1974: Clark, Kenneth. Another Part of the World: A Self-Portrait. London, 1974: 211.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 180, repro.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 373-380, figs. 337, 338, text fig. 125.

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1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 104, pl. 91.

1980: Ternois, Daniel. Ingres. Milan, 1980: 102-103, repro. 151.

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1991: Ockman, Carol. "Two Large Eyebrows à l'Orientale: Ethnic Stereotyping in Ingres's Baronne de Rothschild." Art History 14, no. 4 (1991): 524, repro.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 178, repro.

1995: Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York, 1995: 960, fig. 26-44.

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1999: Ternois, Daniel. "Lettres d'Ingres à Marcotte d'Argenteuil." Société de l'histoire de l'art français, Archives de l'art français, new period, 35 (1999): 143-147.

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2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 354-355, no. 288, color repro.

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