The Kaunitz Sisters (Leopoldine, Caroline, and Ferdinandine)1818
Three sisters, the daughters of Prince Aloys von Kaunitz-Rietberg, Austrian ambassador in Rome, pose together in fashionable high-waisted dresses, drawn in fine graphite. More about this work
About this work
Three sisters, the daughters of Prince Aloys von Kaunitz-Rietberg, Austrian ambassador in Rome, pose together in fashionable high-waisted dresses, drawn in fine graphite. Ingres, who lived in Rome in these years, earned much of his living from portrait drawings of visitors and diplomats, and he brought to them the same precision as to his paintings: faces modelled in delicate tone, while costume and setting are sketched in a few sure, flowing lines. Grouping three sitters on a single sheet was a particular challenge, met here with a graceful rhythm of heads and gestures.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Graphite
- Pencil. Graphite has been used for drawing since the 1500s; in 1795 Nicolas-Jacques Conté mixed it with clay, so its hardness could be graded.
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
French, 1780–1867 · Born in Montauban; died in Paris.
Ingres trained under Jacques-Louis David and won the Prix de Rome, then spent nearly two decades in Italy, absorbing Raphael above all. He became the champion of line and classical tradition against Delacroix’s Romanticism, and later directed the French Academy in Rome. Though he thought history painting his true calling, he is now most admired for his portraits, both his polished oils and the precise graphite drawings he made of visitors in Rome and Florence.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1998.21
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Drawings
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
