Portrait of Madame Paul Meurice, née Palmyre Granger
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres French
Not on view
This large scale study was presumably a preparatory work for a lost or never executed portrait. It depicts the painter's god-daughter, Palmyre Meurice (1819-1874), known to her friends and family as 'Myrette'. Her father, the Neoclassical painter Jean-Pierre Granger, was a close friend of Ingres' and she herself studied art, and would go on to become a renowned musician. She married the writer Paul Meurice in 1843 and counted Charles Baudelaire and Victor Hugo among her close friends.
Holding what appears to be a flower, the sitter faces the viewer directly. The frontality of her pose, along with her steady gaze, suggests a mature and accomplished woman. Using a dark graphite, Ingres has gone over the lines repeatedly, establishing the sinuous contours characteristic of his style. Her features are rendered with clarity, in a decidedly more delicate technique.
Perrin Stein (July, 2017)
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