Amédée-David, the Comte de Pastoret

Notes from the museum

This portrait of Amédée-David, the Comte de Pastoret, is one of several artworks he commissioned from his friend Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Pastoret likely played a role in Ingres’s admission to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and here he is seen wearing the embroidered black uniform reflective of his role as auditor for the Council of State. The shimmering Legion of Honor medal hung high around his neck with a red ribbon and the exquisitely detailed golden sword hilt alleviate the somber darkness of his costume. Pastoret stands outlined against forest-green silk wallpaper and a swag of matching drapery, with one hand resting on his hip and the other thumb tucked casually into his jacket. With confidence and swagger—and a less-than-subtle air of disinterest—Pastoret stares directly at the viewer with the grandeur typical of Ingres’s aristocratic portraits. This painting stayed with Pastoret’s family until the death of his daughter in 1890, and in 1897 it was purchased by the famed Impressionist painter Edgar Degas . Ingres was a consistent source of artistic inspiration for Degas, himself a portraitist who owned some twenty paintings and over eighty drawings by the older artist. Degas kept this likeness of Pastoret in his art collection until his own death in 1917.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago (open access). Our full story for this work is coming soon.

Slow Look

1. The whole picture Let your eyes wander. Where do they want to rest?
2. The light Find the brightest spot. What is it showing you?
3. The edges Look at what is half cut off at the borders.
4. One small detail Choose one tiny thing and stay with it for a while.
5. The whole picture again Step back. Has it changed for you?

About Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style. Although he considered himself a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, it is his portraits, both painted and drawn, that are recognized as his greatest legacy. His expressive distortions of form and space made him an important precursor of modern art, influencing Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and other modernists.

Painter profile →