Ingres was a student of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), a central figure of French neoclassicism. He became established as a painter while still young, receiving important official commissions from the Napoleonic regime. In 1806, he traveled to Rome, where he remained until 1820, when he moved to Florence. In Italy, he became one of the most highly demanded portraitists. Returning to Paris in 1824, he became recognized as the leader of the French classical school. Elected as a member of the academy, he opened a prestigious studio and during his life was considered by the official art world as the greatest French artist. His countless drawings show how Ingres possessed an enormous erudition that ranged from the painting of Greek vases to mannerist art. He knew how to combine all these references in his compositions through drawing, conceived in a purely decorative way, that is, in accordance with the formal balance and without naturalist concerns. Two of MASP’s works by Ingres, The Blessing Christ (1834) and Virgin of the Blue Veil (1827), present religious themes. Historically, the gestures of these figures refer to specific biblical narratives, but they also serve to instruct the faithful in their devotion. At the outset of Christianity, the hands of Christ were portrayed opened and facing upward; it was how he taught the people to pray the Lord’s Prayer. For her part, Mary’s hands are held together, according to medieval tradition, expressing humility and submission.
— MASP Curatorial Team, 2015
By Luciano Migliaccio
Commissioned in 1824 by Comte de Pastoret, the painting Virgin of the Blue Veil was inspired by the Virgin in the famous Vow of Louis XIII (Montauban, Notre Dame Cathedral), commissioned by Louis XVIII and shown at the 1824 Paris Salon. Delignières (1890, pp. 494-495) thought that this picture and its pendant, The Blessing Christ, were reproductions by the artist himself – a type of work that was unlike Ingres, who always introduced subtle variations in similar compositions. According to Momméja, this painting was a study for the Virgin in Vow of Louis XIII, which the artist resumed at a later date and transformed into a separate painting. Lapauze (1911, p. 280) supposed that this Virgin was the same one mentioned in Ingres’s letter to Pastoret dated August 31st, 1827: “Je m’empresse de vous envoyer la Vierge. Je suis bien contrarié de ne pas vous la donner toute vernie avec l’autre tableau, ouvrages que j’espérais terminer bien avant aujourd’hui”. The picture was the basis for lithographs by Sudre, Herbert, and P. Bellierd. The artist reintroduced the hand gestures, which constituted the greatest novelty in comparison with Vow of Louis XIII, in the painting Virgin with the Host (1841, Moscow, Pushkin Museum), the first of a series of similar compositions. Here the figure’s face was inspired by several Raphaelesque models.
— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998
