Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Letter from Ingres to Charles-Pierre-Michel Forestier, 7 April 1807, page 1, MA 2701.

Sent to his prospective father-in-law six months after arriving in Rome, this letter indicates that the artist's spirits had improved. Ingres was decidedly entranced by the many masterpieces on public view, such as Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and "the beautiful paintings of Perugino." He also includes news about recent developments at the French Academy in Rome, notably the sudden death of the director, Joseph Benoît Suveée (1743–1802). Ingres writes of the latter's replacement, Guillaume Lethière, of whom he would later create a masterful portrait: "I really like M. Lethière, and I hope that I will get along with him as well as I did with M. Suvée."