Inscription: Signed (right, on paper): Ingres / Pinx.

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-Jerôme-François-Jacques Leblanc, Paris (1846–d. 1886); his sister, Mme Jean-Henri Place (Isaure Juliette-Joséphine Leblanc), Paris (1846–d. 1895; her posthumous sale [no published catalogue], Hôtel Drouot, Paris, January 23, 1896, no. 48 as "un portrait d'homme par Ingres," for Fr 3,500 to Durand-Ruel for Degas and Albert Bartholomé [see Notes]); Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas, Paris (1896–d. 1917, his estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, March 26–27, 1918, no. 54, to The Met)

Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "Great Portraits by Famous Painters," November 13–December 21, 1952, no. 35 (as "Portrait of Monsieur Le Blanc").

Paris. Petit Palais. "Ingres," October 27, 1967–January 29, 1968, no. 127.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ingres at the Metropolitan," December 13, 1988–March 19, 1989, no catalogue (as "Jacques Louis Leblanc").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Private Collection of Edgar Degas," October 1, 1997–January 11, 1998, no. 619.

London. National Gallery. "Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch," January 27–April 25, 1999, no. 89.

Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch," May 23–August 22, 1999, no. 89.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch," October 5, 1999–January 2, 2000, no. 89.

Paris. Musée du Louvre. "Ingres: 1780–1867," February 24–May 15, 2006, no. 55.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 3.

Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.

Théophile Silvestre. Histoire des artistes vivants: Français et étrangers. Paris, 1856, p. 36, lists "Portrait de M. Leblanc" as one of the paintings that Ingres made during his stay in Florence from 1820 to 1824.

Olivier Merson. Ingres: Sa vie et ses oeuvres. Paris, 1867, p. 109, dates it 1821.

Henri Delaborde. Ingres: Sa vie, ses travaux, sa doctrine. Paris, 1870, p. 253, no. 134, dates it 1822 or 1823.

Charles Blanc. Ingres sa vie et ses ouvrages. Paris, 1870, pp. 82–83, 232, notes that the Leblanc portraits and three other paintings occupied much of Ingres's time in 1823.

P. Durrieu. Letter to M. le Directeur. June 25, 1886 [published in Ref. Naef 1966], discusses Mme Place's offer of the Leblanc portraits to the Louvre, which was rejected.

"Nouvelles." Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts 5 (February 1, 1896), p. 38, notes that it was sold the previous week at the Hôtel Drouot sale, and that it was bought by Edgar Degas for Fr 3,500; comments that the price was too low for an Ingres, probably a result of the Louvre not being interested in it.

Edgar Degas. Ingres, Portraits de Mr et Mme Leblanc. n.d. [translated and published in Ref. Reff 1976], lists how much he spent for this portrait; recalls seeing the portraits of M. and Mme Leblanc in 1854 in the home of their son, on the rue de la vieille Estrapade, and again in 1855 at the World's Fair; notes that Mme Place obtained the portraits from her brother; mentions that the background of this portrait was repainted in order to make it identical to that of his wife; speculates that when it was repainted ten years earlier, the background was removed in the presence of Degas and the original red ground was uncovered intact.

Arsène Alexandre. Jean-Dominique Ingres: Master of Pure Draughtsmanship. Ed. Walter Shaw Sparrow. London, 1905, pp. 15–16, tells of seeing this portrait in Degas's studio and of his great admiration for it.

J. Momméja. Ingres. Paris, [1907], p. 71, dates it 1823–24; notes that the paintings of M. and Mme Leblanc were the only two portraits Ingres made during his stay in Florence, 1820–24.

Jean Auguste Boye Boyer D'Agen. Ingres d'après une correspondance inédite. Paris, 1909, p. 60, quotes a letter that Ingres wrote in January 1821 to Jean-François Gilibert in which he mentions this painting; mistakenly thinks that Ingres was referring to M. Pastoret, not M. Leblanc.

A. J. Finberg. Ingres. London, [?1910], p. 45, dates it 1823–24.

Henry Lapauze. Ingres: Sa vie & son oeuvre (1780–1867), d'après des documents inédits. Paris, 1911, pp. 212–14, dates it 1823 and notes that Ingres made only two studies for this painting.

"Nos Échos: . . . La Collection Degas." Le Cousin Pons 2 (October 15, 1917), p. 269, lists the Leblanc portraits among those most admired by Degas's friends.

Armand Dayot. "L'Atelier de Degas." L'illustration 76 (March 16, 1918), pp. 256–59 [Engl. translation published in Ref. Rabinow 1997, p. 309], states that Degas paid 12,000 francs for the pair.

Raymond Bouyer. "Mouvement des arts: La Collection Edgar Degas." Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, supplément à la Gazette des beaux-arts ([March] 1918), p. 86.

"La Vente Degas." New York Herald [Paris] (March 27, 1918), p. 3 [Engl. translation published in Ref. Rabinow 1997, p. 317].

"Sale of Degas Collection." Times (London) (March 27, 1918), p. 5.

"Art Sale in Paris Best of War Time: Edgard [sic] Degas' Collection Brings $320,000 Despite Raids and Bombardment." New York Herald, section 2, (March 28, 1918), p. 7 [reprinted in Ref. Rabinow 1997, p. 318].

L[ouis]. Dimier. "Les Arts pendant la guerre: La collection Degas." L'Action française (April 2, 1918), p. 4, criticizes Degas's collection of Ingres, calling the Leblanc portraits the worst of all.

Arsène Alexandre. "Essai sur Monsieur Degas." Les Arts 14, no. 166 (1918), pp. 12, 21.

"Degas Sale in Paris." American Art News 16 (April 27, 1918), p. 1.

Paul Lafond. Degas. Vol. 1, Paris, 1918, pp. 117–21.

Henry Lapauze. "Ingres chez Degas." La renaissance de l'art français et des industries de luxe no. 1 (March 1918), pp. 10–11, ill., notes that this portrait remained in the Leblanc family until it was bought by Degas in an obscure sale at the Hôtel Drouot; states that Albert Bartholomé and Degas agreed to buy the two Leblanc portraits together, intending that each artist would get one of the two but that Degas kept both and Bartholomé never insisted on receiving his half of the pair.

B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "Two Ingres Portraits." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 13 (May 1918), p. 119, states that the portraits of M. and Mme Leblanc will be stored in France until after the war.

"La Vente Degas." New York Herald [Paris] (March 26, 1918), p. 3 [Engl. translation published in Ref. Rabinow 1997, pp. 315–16], notes that the paint is a bit cracked, but that it is still one of the best portraits by Ingres in the collection of Degas.

"Art et curiosité: La collection Degas." Le temps (March 29, 1918), p. 3.

M. A. Frappart. Annuaire des ventes. Vol. 1, Les Principales ventes de 1918. October 1918–July 1919, p. 19 [Engl. translation published in Ref. Rabinow 1997, p. 334].

Albert Bartholomé. Letter to Alfred Roll. March 28, 1918 [Fondation Custodia, Paris, inv. 1977–1.632], states that he and Degas had the winning bid for the pair of Leblanc portraits in the 1896 auction at Hôtel Drouot; that they had the intention of splitting them, with Madame Leblanc's portrait going to Bartholomé; and that Bartholomé later informally ceded any claim to her portrait when Degas implored him not to break up the couple.

Bryson Burroughs. "Portraits of M. and Mme Leblanc by Ingres." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 14 (June 1919), pp. 133–35, ill., remarks that the paintings are in their original frames and that the black of M. Leblanc's coat has cracked, probably due to a siccative that Ingres mixed with this slow-drying color.

"Portraits by Ingres." American Magazine of Art 11, no. 1 (November 1919), pp. 15, 17, ill.

Louis Hourticq. Ingres: L'oeuvre du maître. Paris, 1928, pp. v, 57, dates it 1822.

Morton D. Zabel. "Ingres in America." The Arts 16, no. 6 (February 1930), pp. 372, 374–75, 377, ill.

Paul Poujaud. Letter to Marcel Guérin. July 11, 1936 [English translation published in Marcel Guérin, ed., "Degas Letters," Oxford, 1947, p. 236], describes seeing this picture shortly after it was purchased by Degas.

Walter Pach. Ingres. New York, 1939, p. 52.

P[aul]. A[ndré]. Lemoisne. Degas et son œuvre. [reprint 1984]. Paris, [1946–49], p. 175, ill. opp. p. 176.

Jean Alazard. Ingres et l'Ingrisme. Paris, 1950, pp. 66, 148 n. 31, pl. XLVIII.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 50.

Georges Wildenstein. The Paintings of J. A. D. Ingres. 1st ed. 1954, p. 194, no. 153, pl. 59.

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 6.

Georges Wildenstein. The Paintings of J. A. D. Ingres. 2nd revised ed. London, 1956, p. 194, no. 153, pl. 59.

Daniel Halévy. My Friend Degas. Ed. Mina Curtiss. Middletown, Conn., 1964, pp. 85–86, remarks, in a journal entry of January 21, 1896, that Degas had bought it and was very excited about his purchase.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, pp. 9–10, ill.

Hans Naef. "Ingres und die Familie Leblanc." du-atlantis 26 (February 1966), pp. 121–34, colorpl. 5, publishes Ingres's drawings of the Leblanc family and quotes his letters concerning them and the paintings he made for them; gives information on the history of the portraits of M. and Mme Leblanc, as well as on the Leblanc family.

Michel Laclotte. "L'année Ingres." Revue du Louvre et des musées de France nos. 4–5 (1967), p. 194.

Daniel Ternois in Ingres. Exh. cat., Petit Palais. Paris, 1967, pp. 184–85, no. 127, ill.

Robert Rosenblum. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. New York, 1967, pp. 124–25, colorpl. 32.

Ettore Camesasca in L'opera completa di Ingres. Milan, 1968, pp. 100–101, no. 110, ill.

Hans Naef. "Ingres to M. Leblanc: An Unpublished Letter." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 29 (December 1970), pp. 178–84, fig. 2, translates a letter from Ingres to M. Leblanc thanking him for his great friendship and patronage; publishes a small note that secures the date of Isaure Place's auction as January 23, 1896.

Theodore Reff. Degas, The Artist's Mind. [New York], 1976, pp. 54, 88–89, 309 n. 53, p. 312 nn. 140, 144, 145, questions whether the background of this portrait was repainted in 1886 when Mme Place offered it to the Louvre; notes that the background is not red, as Degas writes, but rather warm brown with touches of red.

Hans Naef. "Degas acheteur des portraits de M. et Mme Leblanc." Bulletin du Musée Ingres no. 39 (July 1976), pp. 11–14, ill., provides details on the Place sale of 1896; publishes the procès-verbal of the sale, which says that the pendant portraits were bought by Durand-Ruel for Degas.

Hans Naef. Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres. Vol. 2, Bern, 1978, pp. 438–48, fig. 2, discusses Ingres's relationship with the Leblanc family; reprints a number of letters that relate to the Leblancs as patrons and friends.

Daniel Ternois. Ingres. Milan, 1980, pp. 65, 94–95, 179–80, no. 164, ill. (color and black and white).

Thérèse Burollet in Degas scultore. Exh. cat., Centro Mostre di Firenze. Milan, 1986, p. 55, states that Edgar Degas and Albert Bartholomé purchased the Leblanc pendant portraits together at the Hôtel Drouot sale but that the pictures stayed in Degas's possession and that the friendship of the two artists impeded Bartholomé from claiming his share of the paintings.

Jean Sutherland Boggs in Degas. Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris. New York, 1988, p. 491, fig. 279, translates and publishes a letter from Bartholomé to Paul Lafond, where Degas's purchase of the portraits of M. and Mme Leblanc is noted.

Steven Henry Madoff. "Face to Face." Art News 88, no. 2 (February 1989), pp. 106–7, ill.

Georges Vigne. Ingres. New York, 1995, pp. 157–60, 266, 328, 333, no. 106, colorpl. 132, publishes Ingres's Cahier X where it is listed under "Florence, 1820" as "id. [portrait a mi corps] de Mr Leblanc avec mains".

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 401, ill.

Colin B. Bailey. "Renoir's Portrait of His Sister-in-Law." Burlington Magazine 137 (October 1995), p. 685.

Paul Mitchell and Lynn Roberts. Frameworks: Form, Function & Ornament in European Portrait Frames. London, 1996, p. 424 n. 25.

Colin B. Bailey in Colin B. Bailey. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. New Haven, 1997, p. 106.

Ann Dumas in The Private Collection of Edgar Degas. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, pp. 3, 5–6, 12, 19–20, 26, fig. 22 (color), remarks that Degas considered this portrait and its pendant to be the high points of his collection.

Theodore Reff in The Private Collection of Edgar Degas. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, p. 147.

Susan Alyson Stein in The Private Collection of Edgar Degas. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, pp. 271, 279–81, 287–88.

Rebecca A. Rabinow in The Private Collection of Edgar Degas. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, pp. 302, 309, 312, 317–22, 325, 333.

Gary Tinterow in The Private Collection of Edgar Degas. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1997, p. 76.

Rebecca A. Rabinow. "Catharine Lorillard Wolfe: The First Woman Benefactor of the Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 147 (March 1998), p. 54, lists it among the works that were purchased with the Wolfe Fund.

Christopher Riopelle in Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Philip Conisbee. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1999, pp. 244, 256–57, 259–61, 466, 548, no. 89, ill. (color).

Valérie Bajou. Monsieur Ingres. Paris, 1999, pp. 184, 186–87, 359 n. 22, colorpl. 134, remarks that Toussaint believes that this pose is derived from Bronzino's "Bartolomeo Panciatichi" (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence).

Nicholas Penny. Notes on Frames in the Exhibition "Portraits by Ingres". February 1999 [published on the National Portrait Gallery, London website: http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/the-art-of-the-picture-frame/artist-ingres.php], suggests that the Leblanc portraits were reframed in Paris in the 1830s, possibly as proposed by Ingres.

Peter Humfrey. Giovanni Battista Moroni: Renaissance Portraitist. Exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum. Fort Worth, 2000, pp. 24–25, ill.

Gary Tinterow, Charlotte Hale, and Eric Bertin. "'Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch': Reflections, Technical Observations, Addenda, and Corrigenda." Metropolitan Museum Journal 35 (2000), pp. 195, 205–7 nn. 18, 19, p. 213, no. 89, fig. 17, note that the artist seems to have adjusted the format slightly and that infrared reflectography reveals changes in the areas of the figure's clothing.

Vincent Pomarède in Ingres: 1780–1867. Ed. Vincent Pomarède et al. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 2006, pp. 159, 195, 200–201, 381, no. 55, ill. p. 199 (color).

Gary Tinterow in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 20–21, 220, no. 3, ill. (color and black and white).

Richard Dagorne. "Le 'Portrait de Madame Reiset:' un important portrait féminin par Girodet." Revue du Louvre et des musées de France 60 (February 2010), p. 12.

Walter B. Denny. How to Read Islamic Carpets. New York, 2014, pp. 136, 139, fig. 126 (color).

Roberta Crisci-Richardson. Mapping Degas: Real Spaces, Symbolic Spaces and Invented Spaces in the Life and Work of Edgar Degas (1834–1917). Newcastle upon Tyne, 2015, pp. 307–8.

Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 429, no. 325, ill. pp. 337, 429 (color).

Henri Loyrette. Degas: A New Vision. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne, 2016, p. 262 n. 257.

Sophie Matthiesson in Henri Loyrette. Degas: A New Vision. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne, 2016, p. 249.

Thérèse Burollet. Albert Bartholomé, 1848–1928. Paris, 2017, p. 82, discusses the joint purchase of the two Leblanc portraits by Degas and Bartholomé at the 1896 sale, citing Bartholomé for the price of 12,000 francs for the pair; cites Bartholomé's letters to Roll and Lapauze (both 1918) regarding Bartholomé's subsequent indulgence of Degas's wish not to separate the couple.

Jane Munro. Degas: A Passion for Perfection. Exh. cat., Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. New Haven, 2017, p. 64.

Diana J. Kostyrko. The Journal of a Transatlantic Art Dealer: René Gimpel 1918–1939. London, 2017, pp. 34, 38.

Jacques-Louis Leblanc (1774–1846) was born in Versailles. At the time of his marriage to Madame Leblanc in 1811 he held a cabinet post in Florence as secretary to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. While Ingres was in Florence, between 1820 and 1824, Leblanc was a generous and sympathetic patron.

Studies for this portrait are preserved in the Musée Ingres, Montauban [see Vigne, Dessins d'Ingres: Catalogue raisonné des dessins du musée de Montauban, 1995, nos. 2694–96].

Étienne Achille Réveil engraved this portrait for his Oeuvres de J. A. Ingres . . . gravées au trait sur acier, Paris, 1851, pl. 43.

This portrait is the companion to The Met 19.77.2.

On Albert Bartholomé's having purchased the Leblanc pendant portraits with Degas at the Place sale of 1896 but never having taken possession of his half of the purchase (which was to be The Met 19.77.2) after Degas urged his friend not to break up the Leblanc couple, see Bartholomé 1918, Lapauze 1918, Dayot 1918, and Burollet 2017.