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

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

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

Artist:Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (French, Montauban 1780–1867 Paris)
Date:1823
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:47 x 36 1/2 in. (119.4 x 92.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1918

For this portrait there are more than two dozen drawings investigating a variety of poses (Musée Ingres, Montauban). Similar studies do not exist for the likeness of Madame Leblanc’s husband (19.77.1). The two paintings—the only pair of portraits Ingres produced—were probably intended to hang facing one another, since the light falls differently in each, but they are unified by the visual harmony of hands, gold chains, and rich textiles that enhance the couple’s black clothing. This work, however, was exhibited without its pendant at the Salon of 1834.

Provenance

M. and Mme Jacques-Louis Leblanc, Florence, later Paris (1823–her d. 1839); Jacques-Louis Leblanc, Paris, later Tours (1839–d. 1846); their son, ?Félix-Jérôme-François-Jacques Leblanc, Paris (1846–d. 1886); his sister, Mme Jean-Henri Place, née Isaure Juliette-Josephine Leblanc, Paris (1886–d. 1895; her posthumous sale [no published catalogue], Hôtel Drouot, Paris, January 23, 1896, no. 47 as "Un portrait de femme par Ingres," for Fr 7,500 to Durand-Ruel for Degas and Albert Bartholomé [see Notes]); Edgar Degas (1896–d. 1917; his estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, March 26–27, 1918, no. 55, to MMA)

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