Lancelot-Théodore, comte Turpin de Crissé

Lancelot-Théodore, comte Turpin de Crissé by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres is an intimate and highly detailed graphite drawing that captures a distinguished portrait of a French nobleman. Executed sometime within Ingres’s long and and influential career (1795-1867), this work exemplifies the meticulous preparatory studies and refined linear style for which the artist is renowned throughout art history.

Ingres’s skill in using graphite is immediately evident in the sharp outlines and subtle shading employed to render the Comte's features and formal attire. This precision highlights the artist’s characteristic preference for Neoclassical linear authority over the looser brushwork of Romanticism. As a crucial classification of drawing in his oeuvre, this piece demonstrates Ingres’s unwavering commitment to academic rigor, placing emphasis on the sitter’s structural integrity and perceived psychological depth rather than relying on dramatic contrasts of light.

Such detailed portraits of influential men were characteristic of the period, often serving either as independent works of art or as precise preliminary studies for larger oil paintings. The composition focuses intently on the subject, capturing a powerful sense of aristocratic reserve and intellectual intensity typical of high-society French portraiture. This exceptional example of early 19th-century portraiture remains a key work in the study of Ingres's graphic output and is held within the esteemed collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Given its historical significance, high-quality prints and reproductions of this celebrated drawing are frequently shared in the public domain, allowing broader access to the master draftsman’s exacting skill.