Ingres (1780–1867) as a Young Man

Artist: Laurence-Augustine Jubé Héquet (Madame Héquet) (French, 1803–1864)

Original Dimensions: 34" x 27"

Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

About Artwork: (ca. 1850–60) "Artists typically sketched out key components of their compositions onto their canvases in graphite or white chalk as guides before they began to apply oil paint. Self-portraits often depict artists at this moment while their canvas sits ready, propped up on the easel in a clever comment on the creation of the finished self-portrait itself. In 1804 a leading figure of French painting, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, completed a self-portrait, of which this is a faithful copy. Copying was a typical means for painters to hone their skills. In this case, it was executed by an amateur painter, Laurence-Augustine Jubé Héquet, the wife of a composer and collector who owned Ingres’s original for much of the nineteenth century." - (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)