Study for "The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien" (recto and verso)

Artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (French, 1780 - 1867)

Date1826/1827

MediumBlack chalk on paper

DimensionsUnframed: 21 9/16 × 16 1/4 inches (54.76 × 41.28 cm)
Framed: 28 1/4 × 23 1/4 × 1 1/2 inches (71.76 × 59.06 × 3.81 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number33-1401 A,B

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

David and Ingres, Paintings and Drawings, Springfield Museum of Art, MA, November 20-December 17, 1939, no. 41, as Sheet of Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

The Nude in Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, January 1-February 3, 1946, no. 32, as Sheet of Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien”.

Loan Exhibition of Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, June 1-September 15, 1950, no. 25, as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien.”

Anatomy and Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 8-June 5, 1960, no. 39, Study for "Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

Ingres in American Collections: Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Lighthouse, New York Association for the Blind, Paul Rosenberg and Company, New York, April 7-May 6, 1961, no. 42, as Study for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

Ingres Centennial Exhibition 1867-1967: Drawings, Watercolors and Oil Sketches from American Collections, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February 12-April 9, 1967, no. 61, as Three Men on Horseback, A Study for the “Martyrdom of St. Symphorien” (recto).

Ingres and Delacroix through Degas and Puvis de Chavannes: The Figure in French Art, 1800-1870, Shepherd Gallery, New York, May-June 1975, no. 17, as Study Sheet with Three Men on Horseback for the “Martyrdom of St. Symphorien” (recto and verso).

Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Washington University Gallery of Art, Saint Louis, MO, September 22-December 3, 1989, unnumbered, as Studies for “The Martyrdom of St. Symphorien” (recto and verso).

Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 17-March 25, 1990, no cat., as Studies for “The Martyrdom of St. Symphorien” (recto and verso).

Master Drawings from Polish Collections, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 17-June 6, 1993. NAMA addition.

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, June 23-August 18, 1996; The Cummer Museum and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, September 20-November 29, 1996; The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, December 21, 1996-March 2, 1997, no. 61, as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien.”

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 12-September 6, 1998, no cat., as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien.”

Color and Line: Masterworks on Paper, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 5 –November 11, 2007; February 26–August 10, 2014; March 11–July 20, 2017, no cat., as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien.”

Gallery Label

This preparatory study for a painting of the Christian martyr Saint Symphorien demonstrates the mastery of line and shading by one of the greatest draftsmen and portraitists in French art. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres preferred using wove paper as opposed to traditional laid paper because of its smooth, uniform surface that facilitated fine lines. Wove paper also provided enough texture to hold soft media, such as graphite and chalk, without distracting the viewer from the subtlety and grace of the artist’s line.

Provenance

[Etienne-François Haro (1827–1897), Paris;] [?]

[Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz (1815–1894), Paris;] [?]

Martine-Marie-Pol de Béhague, comtesse de Béarn (1869–1939), Paris, by 1926;

Purchased from Important Drawings by Old Masters…A Choice Collection of French Drawings, the Property of Madame the Comtesse de Béhague, Sotheby’s, London, June 29, 1926, lot 103, as Sheet of Studies on the recto and verso for the Martyrdom of St. Symphorien in the Cathedral at Autun (1834), by Thomas Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London, 1926–1933;

Purchased from Thomas Agnew and Sons, Ltd., by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.

Published References

Catalogue of Important Drawings by Old Masters…A Choice Collection of French Drawings, the Property of Madame the Comtesse de Béhague; Comprising Interesting Portrait Studies in Pencil by J.A.D. Ingres, signed and inscribed… (London: Sotheby and Company, June 29, 1926), 29, (repro.), as Sheet of Studies on the recto and verso for the Martyrdom of St. Symphorien in the Cathedral at Autun (1834) (recto).

David and Ingres, Paintings and Drawings, exh. cat. (Springfield, MA: Springfield Museum of Art, 1939), unpaginated, (repro.), as Sheet of Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 101, (repro.), as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

The Nude in Art, exh. cat. (Hartford, CT: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1946), 11, as Sheet of Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien”.

Agnes Mongan, Ingres: 24 Drawings (New York: Pantheon, 1947), unpaginated, (repro.), as Study for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 126, (repro.), as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

Loan Exhibition of Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museum, exh. cat. (Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1950), unpaginated, as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien”.

Regina Lenore Shoolman and Charles E. Slatkin, Six Centuries of French Master Drawings in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950), 116, (repro.), as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto and verso).

Arthur Millier, The Drawings of Ingres (Los Angeles: Borden, 1955), 11, 13, (repro.), (recto and verso).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 118, (repro.), as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

“Anatomy and Art,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) 3, no. 1 (May 8-June 5, 1960): 14, 16, as Study for “ Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

Ingres in American Collections: Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Lighthouse, New York Association for the Blind, exh. cat. (New York: Paul Rosenberg, 1961), 43, (repro.), as Study for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto).

Waldemar George, Dessins d’Ingres (Paris: Éditions du Colombier, 1967), 65-66, (repro.), as Trois hommes à cheval/Étude pour le Martyr de St Symphorien (recto).

Ingres, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions du Reunion des musées nationaux, 1967), 226.

Agnes Mongan and Hans Naef, Ingres Centennial Exhibition 1867-1967: Drawings, Watercolors and Oil Sketches from American Collections, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1967), unpaginated, (repro.), as Three Men on Horseback, A Study for the “Martyrdom of St. Symphorien” (recto).

Jack Kramer, Human Anatomy and Figure Drawing: The Integration of Structure and Form (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1972), 130-31, (repro.), as Study of Nude Man Holding a Chair (verso).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 176, 187, (repro.), as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien (recto and verso).

Ingres and Delacroix through Degas and Puvis de Chavannes: The Figure in French Art, 1800-1870, exh. cat. (New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1975), 39-43, (repro.), as Study Sheet with Three Men on Horseback for the “Martyrdom of St. Symphorien” (recto and verso).

Avigdor Arikha, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: 53 dessins sur le vif du Musée Ingres et du Musée du Louvre, exh. cat. (Jerusalem: Museum of Israel, 1981), 112.

Avigdor Arikha, J.A.D. Ingres: Fifty Life Drawings from the Musée Ingres at Montaubann, exh. cat. (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1986), 73, 78.

Roger Ward and Mark S. Weil, Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, exh. cat. (St. Louis, MO: Washington University Gallery of Art, 1989), 7, 9, 52-53, (repro.), as Studies for “The Martyrdom of St. Symphorien” (recto and verso).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 200, (repro.), as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” (recto and verso).

Neil Cox and Deborah Povey, A Picasso Bestiary, exh. cat. (London: Academy Editions, 1995), 55, 57, (repro.), as “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien” study (recto).

Roger Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 11, 94, 191-93, 199, 214, 225, (repro.), as Studies for “The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien.”

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 111, (repro.), as Studies for “The Martydom of Saint Symphorien” (recto and verso).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.