standing female nude holding a rope in each hand

Standing Female Nude, Study for Saint Bathilde, 1843-1844

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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a perfectionist, obsessively reworking paintings, sometimes for decades, and making thousands of drawings. He drew this study from a live model when he was in his mid-sixties. Ingres routinely made life studies of all the figures in his compositions, posing models and drawing them in the nude to ensure anatomical accuracy, even when the final versions would be clothed. The curvaceous, coolly sensuous figure in this study would become a virtuous female saint heavily cloaked in a medieval costume in a stained-glass window in the royal burial chapel at Dreux, France.

During research for this exhibition, it was discovered that this work was stolen by the Nazis in France in 1941 from the Jewish collector David David-Weill. The theft was meticulously documented by the Germans when the work was processed at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris, before being sent to the Altaussee salt mines in Austria. The drawing was restituted after the war, on March 27, 1946, and David-Weill’s heirs sold it to a dealer in 1971.

Details
Title
Standing Female Nude, Study for Saint Bathilde
Artist Life
1780–1867
Role
Artist
Accession Number
80.7
Provenance
David David-Weill, Neuilly-sur-Seine (by 1939-d.1952; sent by David-Weill to the château at Sourches, 1939, inv. no. "D.-W. 33/102"; seized by the Nazis April 11, 1941; processed at the Jeu de Paume [ERR, no. D-W 28]; transferred to Alt Aussee October 27, 1944; held at Munich Central Collecting Point [1182/2] June 27, 1945; returned to France March 27, 1946; restituted); Collection David David-Weill, Neuilly-sur-Seine (1952-71; sold to Nathan); [Galerie Nathan, Zurich, 1971-72; sold to Knoedler]; [Knoedler, New York, from 1972; sold to Shepherd]; [Shepherd Gallery, New York, until 1980; sold April 22 to MIA]
Curator Approved

This record is from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator, so may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.

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standing female nude holding a rope in each hand