JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES
j6 Portrait of Lord Grantham
Graphite; H: 40.5 cm (i5I5/i6in.); W: 28.2 cm (nVs in.)
82.GD.I0 6
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom left, signed and
dated Ingres Del. Rome./1816 in graphite.
PROVENANCE: Thomas Phillip Robinson (Lord Grant-
ham, later Earl de Grey), London and Yorkshire; Mrs.
Henry Vyner, Yorkshire; Robert Charles de Grey Vyner,
Yorkshire; Lady Alwynne Frederick Compton, York-
shire; Major Edward Robert Francis Compton, York-
shire; Robert Compton, Yorkshire; art market, London.
EXHIBITIONS: British Portraits, Royal Academy of Arts,
London, 1956-1957, vol. i, no. 693.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Ford, "Ingres' Portrait Drawings of
English People at Rome, 1806-1820," Burlington Maga-
zine 75, no. 434 (July 1939), pp. 9, n; H. Honour,
"Newby Hall, Yorkshire," Connoisseur 134, no. 542
(January 1955), pp. 247-248, no. 4; "At the Royal Acad-
emy: Fine Portrait Drawings," Illustrated London News
229 , no. 6130 (December 1956), fig. 950; H. Naef, Rome
vuepar Ingres (Lausanne, 1960), p. 27, n. 52; E. I. Mus-
grave, Newby Hall, The Yorkshire. House of the Compton
Family (Derby, 1974), p. 13; H. Naef, Die Bildniszeich-
nungen von]. A. D. Ingres, vols. 2 (Bern, 1978), pp. 79-
84 ; 4 (Bern, 197?), pp. 326-327, no. 177.AMONG THE MOST IMPRESSIVE OF THE PORTRAITS OF
Ingres' Roman years, this drawing depicts Thomas Phil-
lip Robinson, third Baron Grantham and later Earl de
Grey. He was born in 1781 and was therefore thirty-five
at the time of the portrait. Among his accomplishments
were his appointments as first lord of the admiralty
(1834-1835) and lord lieutenant of Ireland (1841-1844).
In addition he was the first president of the Institute of
British Architects (1834). The drawing shows Saint Pe-
ter's Basilica in the background, viewed from the Arco
Oscuro, a vantage point Ingres also chose for his portrait
of Charles Marcotte d'Argenteuil in the Chavane collec-
tion, Paris (1811; Naef 1977, no. 65), and a landscape
study in the Musee Ingres, Montauban (inv. 867.4400).*
It is less clear where Lord Grantham is standing, as the
location is only suggested by a few horizontal and verti-
cal lines.
This is a notable example of Ingres' finished portrait
drawings that date from this phase of his career. It ex-
emplifies an unusually diverse technique employing a va-
riety of strokes and shows an exceptionally refined mod-
eling of the face. There is a minor pentimento at the head,
which was originally set a bit differently. The view of
Saint Peter's in the background, drawn with great deli-
cacy, plays a secondary role in the composition.i. H. Naef, Ingres in Rome, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C., 1971, no. no.172 FRENCH SCHOOL • INGRES