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

Executed between 2 and 9 October 1806, when Ingres stayed with the Bartolini family in Florence on his way to Rome. He had come to know the family through his friendship with the sitter's son Lorenzo (1777-1850), a fellow-student of Ingres in David's studio in Paris who later became a notable Neoclassical sculptor. In total Ingres executed four portraits of the family, including the present work: the portrait of Bartolini's wife, Maria Maddalena Magli, is now in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (Naef, op. cit., no. 38) and Ingres also drew portraits of two of their sons (Naef, op. cit., nos. 39-40).