Portrait of Mr. Revoil to 18 in bust 

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres rendered this sensitive graphite portrait of Mr. Revoil sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Ingres, living in a post-revolutionary France, inherited both the classical tradition and the romantic impulse. The drawing captures the sitter’s youthful features and flowing hair. The gaze meets ours, but there’s an ambivalence in the eyes; a sense of interiority. The detailed attention to Mr. Revoil’s likeness speaks to the value placed on the individual, reflecting shifting social values around identity and status during this period. As Ingres once said, “Drawing is not the shape, it is the way of seeing the shape.” It asks us to consider how we see, and what influences our perceptions of identity and representation. This portrait offers an intimate encounter with history, inviting us to contemplate the complexities of human experience.