Detail of Princesse de Broglie by Ingres in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2008

Joséphine-Éléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn (1825–1860), Princesse de Broglie,1851–53


Object Details

Artist: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (French, Montauban 1780–1867 Paris)

Date: 1851–53

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 47 3/4 × 35 3/4 in. (121.3 × 90.8 cm)
Framed: 61 1/4 × 49 1/2 in. (155.6 × 125.7 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975

Accession Number: 1975.1.186


Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, the neo-classical French artist par excellence, painted this masterpiece toward the end of his life when his reputation as a portraitist to prominent citizens and Orléanist aristocrats had been long established. Pauline de Broglie sat for the artist’s final commission. Ingres captures the shy reserve of his subject while illuminating through seamless brushwork the material quality of her many fine attributes: her rich blue satin and lace ball gown, the gold embroidered shawl, and silk damask chair, together with finely tooled jewels of pearl, enamel, and gold. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter’s husband, Albert de Broglie, a few years after their ill-fated marriage. Pauline was stricken with tuberculosis soon after completion of the exquisite portrait, leaving five sons and a grieving husband. Through Albert’s lifetime, it was draped in fabric on the walls of the family residence. The portrait remained in the de Broglie family until shortly before Robert Lehman acquired it.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459106