Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867)
Portrait of Mme Adolphe-Marcellin Defresne,
née Sophie Leroy, 1826
Graphite
Signed and dated in graphite at lower left, Ingres. Del. 1826.
17 1/4 x 12 inches (436 x 305 mm)
Thaw Collection
During his second Parisian period, from 1824–34,
Ingres often made drawings in pairs, sketching the
portrait of a woman to accompany that of her
husband, or vice versa. The present sheet depicts
Sophie Leroy, the young wife of Adolphe-Marcellin
Defresne. As she sits elegantly posed with book in
hand, every sausage-shaped curl of her coiffure is as
carefully rendered as the details of her elegant day
dress with its high cinched waist, lace collar, satin
puffed sleeves, and ruffled skirt. Having married at
age fifteen, she died at twenty in 1831—five years
after sitting for this portrait.
