X-radiograph(s) of "Portrait of M. de Nogent" Possibly 8 - 48

Curator: Here we have an x-radiograph of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ "Portrait of M. de Nogent" from the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: My goodness, it looks like a ghost! So skeletal and ethereal, almost like the painting is trying to escape the frame. Curator: Indeed, this radiograph reveals the hidden layers beneath the surface, exposing the artist's process and the painting's material structure in surprising ways. Editor: It's fascinating to see the bones of the composition, so to speak. You can almost feel Ingres' hand moving across the canvas, adjusting and refining. It’s like peering into the artist's mind. Curator: It is a unique perspective that transforms the act of portraiture into something almost forensic, revealing the anatomy of art itself. Editor: Absolutely, it’s quite haunting. I see the painting anew, not just as a likeness, but as a palimpsest of artistic choices and material realities.