Girard, Louise (b. 1787) À Mr. A. Leclère, ses élèves et ses amis.
1850.
Soft-ground etching on wove chine collé paper after the 1812 graphite drawing by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres portraying French architects Achille Leclère (1785-1853) on the left and Jean-Louis Provost (1781-1853) on the right; both men seen half-length, facing each other and looking towards viewer; Leclère carries a book under his arm; lettered state, full margins, slightly toned at bottom blank edge; 21 x 14 in.
Girard exhibited this print in the Paris Salon of 1850. "Mme. Louise Girard (née Bathilde in 1787), wife of the engraver François Girard, was a miniature painter and printmaker who debuted at the Salon of 1824. [...] The exact circumstances under which this print was made are not known, although its inscription indicates that it was intended as a tribute to Leclère, who had become a devoted teacher of architecture in the years since his return to Paris. The drawing must have been available to Louise Girard when she made her print, and there is reason to believe it was originally owned by Achille Leclère." (Quoted from Master Drawings from the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton: Smith College, 2000, page 129, the chapter on Ingres by Ann H. Sievers.)
