Portrait of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres c. 1826

Curator: Pierre-Jean David d'Angers sketched this portrait of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It's currently held in the Harvard Art Museums, measuring just over 6 by 4 inches. Editor: The rapid, almost frantic, cross-hatching gives it a raw, immediate feel, doesn't it? You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the paper. Curator: Indeed, that energy mirrors Ingres’s own artistic ambitions. The portrait immortalizes him within a network of artistic exchange. Editor: The simplicity of the materials—likely just pen and ink—belies its complex social function. Consider how the artist used accessible means to portray such an influential figure. Curator: It’s a striking reminder of how artists cement their legacies through these networks of patronage and representation. Editor: Seeing it this way, it’s less about Ingres and more about the act of artistic creation and its place in society. Curator: Precisely! It encapsulates a moment where artistic genius meets the machinery of fame. Editor: A perfect encapsulation of its time, highlighting not only the subject, but the material and the maker too.