Portrait de Louis-Mathieu Molé

1834 was a bruising year for Ingres. His large religious painting at the Salon that spring was coldly received, and the wounded artist vowed never to exhibit publicly again, then accepted the post of director of the French Academy in Rome and left France. In the middle of all this he finished, that October, this portrait of Count Louis-Mathieu Mole, a leading statesman who would soon be Louis-Philippe's prime minister. He showed it privately in his studio rather than at any Salon, and there it was admired without reservation, the elegance of the hands and the grave, thoughtful face singled out for praise. The picture stayed in the Mole family for generations. The Louvre finally acquired it in 2009, for 18 million euros.