By the age of thirteen, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was already studying to become an artist at the Toulouse Academy. This portrait roundel dates to the very start of his career, around 1793–94, which coincided with the Reign of Terror. Ingres carefully depicted the young nephew of the politician Jeanbon Saint-André (1749–1813), who, like the artist, was from Montauban. The boy’s Jacobin bonnet and jacket align him with his uncle, then at the peak of his engagement with the Revolutionary cause.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867), Portrait of a Boy. Graphite. Purchased on the Sunny Crawford von Bulow Fund, 1978, 1982.2.