Exhibit - Le vœu de Louis XIII

The Ingres Bourdelle museum is organizing an exhibition of Ingres drawings around the painting The Vow of Louis XIII kept at Montauban Cathedral. They will surround the graceful little Sketch for the Child Jesus painted by Ingres around 1821 and recently acquired by pre-emption from the City of Montauban from Christie's with the support of the State.

This presentation will bring together nearly 70 drawings, watercolors and paintings including the most beautiful studies carried out by the Montalbanese artist for the preparation of his famous canvas.

Presented at the Salon of 1824, the painting was commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior in 1820 to represent “the Vow of Louis XIII which places the Kingdom of France under the protection of the Holy Virgin at her Assumption”. This subject, both historical and religious, required a long period of reflection from the artist. The preparatory studies bear witness to his meticulous work and his extensive research around the different characters.
The sheets representing the Virgin, the child, the king, the angels, the draperies or the decor show the attention to detail of lngres who displays exceptional qualities as a draftsman, from his delicate nude studies in graphite pencil to the sumptuous draperies on colored paper, treated with stump and black stone enhanced with white.

The exhibition is introduced by the works created by Ernest Pignon-Ernest around the Vœu de Louis XIII, stuck by the artist on the walls of the facade of the cathedral in 2009 for the exhibition Ingres et les Modernes.