Profile Portrait of a Man c. 1797

Editor: So, here we have Ingres’s "Profile Portrait of a Man." It’s incredibly small, just a few inches in diameter, and rendered with graphite. What strikes me is the almost industrial precision of the lines. What do you see in its materiality? Curator: I’m interested in the accessibility of graphite here. Ingres, known for his polished paintings, used a readily available material for this portrait. It raises questions about artistic labor and the perceived value of different mediums. Was graphite a conscious choice to democratize portraiture? Editor: That's a really interesting point! So, it's not just about the image, but about the material itself and the social context. Curator: Precisely. By examining the material and the means of production, we start to understand the social and economic forces at play in artmaking. It really makes you think.