Marcotte d'Argenteuil

The Marcotte d’Argenteuil was commissioned by Charles-Marie-Jean-Baptiste Marcotte d’Argenteuil as a gift for his mother and painted by Ingres in 1810 during the artist’s first Roman sojourn. Ingres signed and dated the work on the lower right over the red cloth. Marcotte disliked the stern portrayal and asked Ingres to keep his displeasure private; the painting remained with him until his death in 1864.

It then passed to his son Joseph, followed by Joseph’s widow until 1922, and then to their daughter Élisabeth Pougin de la Maisonneuve until 1935. After residing in a London private collection, it was acquired by Wildenstein & Co. in an unspecified year and sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in June 1949, which donated it to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in 1952.

The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., accessioned as 1952.2.24 after its 1952 gift from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. It was first exhibited at the Salon of 1814. By descent it remained with the sitter’s family until 1935, then entered a private London collection, passed through Wildenstein & Co., New York, and was acquired by the Kress Foundation in June 1949 before its donation.

The 1810 oil on canvas portrait of Charles Marcotte d'Argenteuil exemplifies Ingres's Roman-period neoclassicism, combining rigorous draftsmanship with a stark psychological portrait; scholars note its stiff military uniform, stern expression, and visual echo of Ingres's 1804 self‑portrait, reflecting the artist's early self‑image and patronage network [2][3][4][5]. Critical commentary has highlighted the work's severe characterization and technical mastery, situating it within Ingres's broader oeuvre of portraiture that documents early‑19th‑century French elite [3][4]. The painting remained in the Marcotte family until its 1949 sale to Samuel H. Kress and subsequent gift to the National Gallery of Art, where it is catalogued as part of the Kress Collection [3][4]

The Marcotte d’Argenteuil has been cited as a touchstone of Ingres’s Roman-period portraiture and a paradigm of early-19th-century French Neoclassical portrait ideals. Its display at the Salon of 1814 helped consolidate Ingres’s reputation among critics and collectors, while later exhibitions, most notably Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999), cemented its status within canonical histories of the genre. Scholars such as Philip Conisbee and Robert Rosenblum have repeatedly invoked the work to illustrate Ingres’s stylistic authority and the social ascendancy of his patrons.

Its inclusion in the Samuel H. Kress Foundation’s donation to the National Gallery of Art in 1952 further entrenched its legacy in American museum culture, where it remains a reference point for discussions of Ingres’s influence on later portraitists.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's 1810 oil on canvas, Marcotte d'Argenteuil, depicts Charles Marie Jean Baptiste Marcotte. Executed during the artist's initial period in Rome, this Neoclassical portrait captures the sitter at approximately 36 or 37 years old. Marcotte, an inspector general for Waters and Forests under Napoleonic rule, is presented with a direct gaze, reflecting the precise draftsmanship characteristic of Ingres's early work. The painting is now held by the National Gallery of Art.