Mme. Henri Gonse, after Ingres 1930s

Editor: This is Jean Charlot's "Mme. Henri Gonse, after Ingres," at the Harvard Art Museums. It's a pencil drawing, a copy of an Ingres portrait. It feels almost like a ghost, a study rather than a finished piece. What can you tell me about why Charlot might have made this? Curator: It's fascinating to consider Charlot engaging with Ingres. Ingres represented the pinnacle of academic portraiture, deeply embedded in the French artistic establishment. By copying Ingres, was Charlot critiquing or embracing that history? Perhaps he was exploring how artists learn by replicating the masters, participating in a lineage while simultaneously commenting on it. Editor: So it's a conversation with art history itself? Curator: Precisely! And consider the date. Without one, we can only speculate on its cultural significance within Charlot's broader body of work. This copy becomes a lens through which we can view the larger art world. Editor: I never considered a copy could be so loaded with meaning!