Joseph-Antoine Moltedo

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres executed this portrait in 1810 while residing as a pensioner at the Villa Medici in Rome. The work belongs to the artist's series of Roman portraits and depicts Joseph-Antoine Moltédo, then the director of posts in Rome. Following its creation, the painting remained within the Moltédo family before being acquired by Théodore Duret.

In 1916, Louisine Havemeyer purchased the work from Duret. Upon her death in 1929, Havemeyer bequeathed the portrait to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it currently resides.

The portrait is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Its provenance traces from the Moltedo family to the collector Théodore Duret. In 1916, Louisine Havemeyer purchased the work, subsequently bequeathing it to the museum upon her death in 1929.

While specific inventory numbers are not detailed in the available records, the painting's exhibition history includes its feature in the 1999 catalog 'Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch,' where it was discussed on pages 125–126. It was also included in the 2006 exhibition 'Ingres: 1780–1867,' documented in the accompanying catalog on pages 188–190. The work was originally created in Rome during the artist's residency at the Villa Médicis.

Ingres’s portrait of Joseph-Antoine Moltedo belongs to the Roman series executed during the artist’s residency at the Villa Medici in 1810, aligning stylistically with contemporaneous Neoclassical portraiture. The work’s plein-air composition, integrating a view of the Colosseum and Via Appia, situates the sitter within a topographically specific Roman setting, a device shared with portraits of François-Marius Granet, Charles-Joseph-Laurent Cordier, and Count Guriev. Scholarship situates these works within Ingres’s early career, emphasizing their role in consolidating his reputation for incisive physiognomic characterization and controlled neoclassical form.

The portrait’s later inclusion in major retrospective surveys, such as Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999), underscores its canonical status within Ingres’s oeuvre and the broader portrait tradition of the era.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres completed this oil portrait, titled Joseph-Antoine Moltedo, in 1810. The painting depicts its namesake subject and is currently housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It exemplifies the Neoclassical style prevalent during its creation, showcasing Ingres's characteristic precision in rendering form and detail within a formal composition.