Madame Edmond Cavé (Marie-Élisabeth Blavot, born 1810)
ca. 1831–34
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
16 x 12 7/8 in. (40.6 x 32.7 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Grace Rainey Rogers, 1943
Accession Number
43.85.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the intimate portrait *Madame Edmond Cavé (Marie-Élisabethavot, born 1810)*, painted by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres around 1831–34, we encounter the masterful precision of one of France's greatest Neoclassical artists. Ingres, a staunch defender of classical ideals against the rising tide of Romanticism, captures young sitter—likely in her early twenties—in a striking profile view. This oil on canvas, measuring just 16 x 12⅞ inches, evokes the elegance of ancient Roman cameos or coins, a deliberate nod to antiquity that underscores Ingres's reverence for idealized form and harmony. The p...
About the Artist
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres · 1780–1867
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was born on 29 August 1780 in Montauban, in the Tarn-et-Garonne region of southern France, into a family with deep artistic and musical connections — his father was a painter, sculptor, and musician. He showed exceptional promise from childhood, enrolling at the Académie Royale in Toulouse where he studied under the sculptor Jean-Pierre Vigan, the landscape painter Je...