Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique, French painter (1780-1867). Autograph letter signed.

Paris, 27. V. 1841.

8vo. Single leaf inscribed on one page. Matted and framed.

 1,800.00

Ingres announces to an unnamed recipient that his friend and student Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-64) will act on his behalf in "making claims" against the recipient concerning a lithographic rendering of Ingres' 1834 painting The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian, expressing his hope that the affair will be settled amicably: "Mon ami et élève M. Flandrin peintre, veut bien se charger comme mon mandataire de vous faire de réclamations touchant la Lythographie [!] du St Symphorien.

Je pense, Monsieur, que dans votre intérêt cette affaire se terminera à l'amiable".

It can only be speculated that the recipient was the author of an unauthorized lithograph copy of the painting. On the bottom of the page, Ingres noted that the letter was returned to him four days later by Flandrin.

The small affair was probably an unpleasant reminder for Ingres of the failure of his monumental painting, which had been commissioned ten years earlier by the Bishop of Auton, with the critics during the Salon of 1834, leading to his decision not to exhibit at the Salon ever again or to accept any public commissions. Furthermore, Ingres applied for the position as director of the French Academy in Rome following the Salon and left Paris in December 1834, only returning in early 1841.

Minimally stained.

Stock Code: BN#48518 Tag: