# The Kaunitz Sisters (Leopoldine, Caroline, and Ferdinandine)

**Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres** (French, 1780–1867)  
1818  
Graphite  
Sheet: 11 7/8 × 8 3/4 in. (30.2 × 22.2 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.21. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/334710).

## 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._

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres drew this in 1818, aged 38. It is now at The Met in New York.

### 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](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/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._

## Facts

- Type: Drawings
- The artist was 38
- Real size: about 12 × 8½ in (30 × 22 cm). Closest to life size: the 8 × 10 in print.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Portraits, Women
- Colour: white
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/992.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/992/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-kaunitz-sisters-leopoldine-caroline-and-ferdinandine-met-334710).