The Virgin Adoring the Host by Ingres in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2008

Artist
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780–1867)

Title
The Virgin Adoring the Host

Date
1852

Medium
Oil on canvas

Dimensions
15 7/8 x 12 7/8 in. (40.3 x 32.7 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Lila and Herman Shickman, 2005

Accession Number
2005.186

While he was serving as director of the French Academy in Rome, Ingres received a commission from the Russian czarevitch, the future Alexander II, to paint a devotional image of the Virgin and the Host with the two patron saints of Russia, Alexander Nevsky and Nicholas. Ingres exhibited the finished picture to critical acclaim in Paris in April 1842 before shipping it to Saint Petersburg.

Ingres subsequently lamented that this painting was lost to France, and he made four variants of the rigorously Raphaelesque composition: this small, jewel-like picture, the first of the sequels, was made for his friend Louise Marcotte. Ingres replaced the Russian saints with two French ones, Helena and Louis, who must have had special significance for Madame Marcotte.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/The_Vi...