The Feet of Homer, Study for The Apotheosis of Homer

In 1826 the Louvre was fitting out new rooms for its antiquities, named the Musée Charles X after the reigning king, and the state asked Ingres to paint one of the ceilings. The result was The Apotheosis of Homer, shown at the Salon of 1827, with the blind poet enthroned and crowned by a winged Victory while 46 poets, artists and thinkers gather around him. It was a picture meant to be seen from far below, and still Ingres stopped to paint Homer's feet on their own, in oil on a sheet of paper only 22 centimetres wide. The right foot rests on its toes, the left turns its sole towards us, and the hem of a white garment hangs just above. More than 100 drawings and a number of painted sketches for the ceiling survive. This one carries Ingres's signature at the lower right, and it entered the Louvre in 1933 as a gift from the Paris art dealers Bernheim-Jeune.