Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique. (1780-1867)
Autograph Letter about "The Turkish Bath"
Autograph letter signed from the French Neoclassical painter regarding the sale of what is widely regarded as his most important painting, The Turkish Bath. Paris, August 10, 1860. Ingres arranges with his correspondent, who is acting as an agent for a foreigner, to view the painting through Ingres' friend Franz Adolf von Stürler. 2 pp. of a bifolium. Folding creases and light wear; overall in fine condition. 5.25 x 8 inches (13.6 x 20.1 cm).Translated from the French, in full: "Dear Sir, I still possess the painting showing Turkish women in the bath; however, I should warn you that another person has been interested in it for a long while, and I have told him to wait for my return to Paris to begin this affair seriously. However, if the foreign person who you mention is not staying in Paris that long and desires to see the painting, that is easily done through Mr. Sturler, history painter, at [...] Rue de Carrières 20, to whom I have left the key to my studio and who will be so kind as to accompany you, although I cannot make any promises before hearing from the other interested party who I mentioned. I am very grateful to you, Monsieur, for serving as an intermediary in this circumstance [...] J. Ingres.
In any case the price of the painting is twenty thousand francs, reserving the engraving rights."
The Turkish Bath (Le Bain Turc), one of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' best-known works, depicts a group of nude women in the bath of a harem, and is painted in a highly erotic style that evokes both the near east and earlier western styles associated with mythological subject matter. The work is signed and dated 1862, when Ingres was around 82 years old, and was completed in 1863. In that year Ingres altered the painting's original rectangular format, and cut the painting to its present tondo form. The painting's first buyer was a relation of Napoleon III, but he handed it back some days later, his wife having found it "unsuitable." It was finally bought in 1865 by Khalil Bey, a former Turkish diplomat who added it to his collection of erotic paintings. Edgar Degas demanded that The Turkish Bath be shown at the exposition universelle, in the wake of which came contrasting reactions – Paul Claudel compared it with a "cake full of maggots." Although the Louvre initially refused the painting twice, it joined the museum's collection in 1911. (14933)
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