Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (Montauban 1780-1867 Paris)

Ingres drew his cat, Biquette, on at least one other occasion: she is the subject of a drawing in the Musée Ingres, Montauban, inscribed La Chatte Biquette (inv. 867.2907; see G. Vigne, Dessins d'Ingres: Catalogue raisonné des dessins du musée de Montauban, Paris, 1995, p. 596). Biquette also appears in the famous painting of Ingres in his Roman studio by Jean Alaux (1786-1864), which dates from 1818, the year after this drawing was executed (Amaury-Duval, L'Atelier d'Ingres: Édition critique de l'ouvrage publié à Paris en 1878, Paris, 1993, p. 110). Alaux shows the cat in the same pose and in front of the same door as in the present drawing. Some of the paintings very quickly sketched in the background of the drawing also reappear in Alaux's picture.