JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES Gabriel Cortois de Pressingny.
Etching 1816. 285x193 mm; 11 1/4x7 5/8 inches, wide margins three sides, the upper margin trimmed just inside the border line. A superb impression of this extremely scarce etching, with strong contrasts and no sign of wear.
Monsignor Gabriel Cortois de Pressigny (1745-1823), Bishop of Saint-Malo, an important French bishop and ultra-royalist, retired from public life during Napoleon's reign. In 1816 he was sent by the restored monarchy as ambassador to the Papal See. That spring, he was drawn by Ingres (1780-1867), who throughout his long sojourn in Rome made small, incisive pencil portraits of visitors to the city. Ingres's etched version of this drawing is scarce, as well as the first of only a handful of printed works that he made. Delteil 1.
