Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780–1867)

Art Historical Context

This exquisite bronze plaquette, created in 1826 by the renowned French sculptor Pierre-Jean David d'Angers, captures the profile of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (0–1867), one of the era's leading Neoclassical painters. just 3¾ × 3¾ inches, it exemplifies the intimate art of medals and plaquettes—a tradition rooted in the Renaissance but revitalized in 19th-century France for commemorating luminaries. David d'Angers, a master of Romantic sculpture, produced hundreds of such portraits, blending precise classical lines with subtle emotional depth to honor intellectuals, artists, and statesmen. Ingres, famed for his meticulous draughtsmanship and idealizing figures in works like *La Grande Odalisque*, represented the Neoclassical resistance to burgeoning Romanticism. This medal, struck during Ingres's mature career, reflects the cultural reverence for artistic heroes amid post-Napoleonic France's intellectual ferment. David d'Angers's technique—likely using the lost-wax casting method for bronze—yields a sharp, medal-like relief that highlights Ingres's noble profile, evoking ancient Roman coins while celebrating modern genius. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department (gift of Maria Reinis, 2015), this small treasure invites visitors to ponder the interplay of tradition and innovation in French art, where a tiny bronze immortalizes enduring rivalries and triumphs.

About the Artist

Pierre Jean David d'Angers · 1788–1856

Pierre-Jean David d'Angers, born on March 12, 1788, in Angers, France, to a wood carver and ornamental sculptor father who had fought in the Republican army, began his artistic training locally under Marchand and Jean-Jacques Delusse at the École centrale d'Angers from 1806 to 1807. In 1808, he arrived in Paris with scant funds and entered the studio of Philippe-Laurent Roland, later working under...