Faces, gold chains and grey silk

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, a French painter of smooth, exact portraits, from about 1820 to 1848. Madame Leblanc sits in black silk with a gold chain and a striped shawl, her husband holds a book by a red carpet, Edmond Cavé wears a quick white cravat, his wife bows her head against a pale, unfinished ground, and Saint John looks down under a thin halo. Tintoretto holds a gun to Aretino’s chest. Ingres and his workshop painted the Odalisque in shades of grey on purpose: a woman in a turban looks back over her shoulder.

As a puzzle

Start with the faces and the gold chains, then the patterns: Madame Leblanc’s striped shawl, the red carpet beside her husband, the red chair and the empty canvas in Tintoretto’s studio. The dark brown grounds behind the Leblancs and Saint John are slow, and Madame Cavé is pale cream nearly all over. The Odalisque has no colour to sort by, only light and shade, so build the curtain and the cushions first. Keep the count moderate.

A good size here: 40–150 pieces.

Also filed under Neoclassicism

Subjects here: Portraits Interiors Sacred Art

7 pictures, pick one to build

Edmond Cavé (1794–1852) 1844

Madame Edmond Cavé (Marie-Elisabeth Blavot, ca. 1806–1883) ca. 1831–34

Head of Saint John the Evangelist probably ca. 1818–20

Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc (Françoise Poncelle, 1788–1839) 1823

Aretino in the Studio of Tintoretto 1848

Jacques-Louis Leblanc (1774–1846) 1823

Odalisque in Grisaille Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Workshop, ca. 1824–34