Ingres and Fashion: Montauban Exhibition Reveals Hidden Secrets of Masterpieces

An exhibition at the Musée Ingres Bourdelle in Montauban, running until November 8, explores the relationship between Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's portraits and fashion. The show features loans including Madame Rivière, Madame de Senonnes, and Madame Marcotte de Sainte-Marie. Ingres, despite his professed disdain for portraiture, created sumptuous depictions of sitters like the baronne James de Rothschild (1848) and the princesse de Broglie (1853). The exhibition highlights how Ingres used clothing—taffeta, velvet, muslin—to reveal rather than conceal his subjects. It also examines accessories such as jewelry, fans, and shawls, noting his precise, almost fetishistic attention to detail. Ingres altered the color of Betty de Rothschild's dress from blue to red to harmonize with garnets and rubies. The show includes a contemporary counterpoint by Bae Joon Sung (1997). Notable absences are the Princesse de Broglie (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and the Vicomtesse d'Haussonville (Frick Collection), both in New York.