Il signor de Norvins

Ingres painted this stern-looking man in Rome in 1811. He is Monsieur de Norvins, and he had just been made Napoleon's chief of police in the city, which French troops were then occupying. Everything about the pose declares his loyalty. The hand tucked into the jacket copies Napoleon's own familiar gesture. But look to the upper left, behind the red curtain, and you can make out a pale shape bleeding through the paint. It was a bust of Napoleon's baby son, the so-called King of Rome. When Napoleon fell in 1814 and the monarchy came back, such open devotion could hurt both sitter and painter, so Ingres draped the bust in red and painted it out. Two centuries on, the paint has thinned and the child's head has quietly resurfaced.