Grace Hartigan
Ingres’ Bath
1992
Scroll
Grace Hartigan
Ingres’ Bath
1992
Physical Qualities
Oil and charcoal on canvas, 78 x 66 1/8 in. (198.1 x 168 cm.)
Credit Line
Alice and Franklin Cooley Fund
Object Number
1994.160
In this painting, Hartigan reimagines Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ The Turkish Bath, a fantasy of female beauty and sexuality, imagined for male enjoyment. The unusual style of drawing references art school exercises, demonstrating that Ingres’ view of the female body is posed, not real. But by putting the bodies in motion, using transparent paint, and emphasizing facial expressions, Hartigan shifts the perception of woman as a sex object to considering her multifaceted, inner life. She poses the question: “I ask of the painting, ‘Are you going to be a paper doll, or a real woman?’”
Sharon Hirsh, The Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, "Grace Hartigan: Painting Art History," September 12, 2003 - November 1, 2003; Decker Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Arts, November 15, 2003 - December 14, 2003, p. 4, ill.
Grace Hartigan: Painting Art History
Inscribed: VERSO: top stretcher bar, 'Ingres' Bath oil on canvas 78 x 66' Hartigan '93.
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