FAMOUS PORTRAIT

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 199, 20 May 1936, Page 17

FAMOUS PORTRAIT

Britain Pays £13,333

Britain bag acquired _ the greatest painting of the early nineteenth century French school—lngres’ portrait of Mme. Moitessler. The National Gallery recently closed a niillion-franc deal (£13,333) with Messrs. Jacques Seligman, the famous Paris and New York art dealers. The money will provide dowries for the four nieces, and sole heirs, of the Vicomtesse Olivier de Bondy, who died recently in Paris. The Vicomtesse de Bondy was a descendant of Mme. de Moitessier.

"Mme. Moitessier’s husband commissioned the painting in 1844,” said the Keeper of the National Gallery. "Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, however, was so meticulous that It took him 1years to complete it. "Mme. Moitessier was the loveliest woman of her time. Originally Maclaine's son—then about a year old —sat upon her red and gold brocaded silk gown. But Ingres took such a long time about his work that the boy bad grown up, and his portrait bad to be erased.”