Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 'Oedipus and the Sphinx', about 1826
About the work
Overview
Oedipus stands before the Sphinx, who challenges him to solve a riddle before he can enter the city of Thebes, just visible in the distance. The skull and bones at the bottom of the picture show the fate of those who have previously failed the test. According to legend, Oedipus answers correctly and he becomes King of Thebes.
Ingres had painted a larger version of this picture in 1808, which is now in the Louvre, Paris. He later enlarged the canvas and reworked the composition, and it is likely that the National Gallery’s painting is a developed sketch for these revisions.
Oedipus and the Sphinx clearly shows Ingres’s attraction to the classical world, whether as a source for stories or as a source for a deliberately classical artistic style. Here, Oedipus’s pose is based upon an ancient Greek statue of Hermes, while the shallow space and figures in profile recall Greek vases.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Oedipus and the Sphinx
- Artist dates
- 1780 - 1867
- Date made
- about 1826
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 17.5 × 13.7 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1918
- Inventory number
- NG3290
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 18th-century French Frame
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, with additions and some revisions by Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, etc.’, London 1970; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2016Painters' Paintings: From Freud to Van DyckThe National Gallery (London)23 June 2016 - 4 September 2016
Bibliography
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1870H. Delaborde, Ingres: Sa Vie, ses travaux, sa doctrine, Paris 1870
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1911H. Lapauze, Ingres: Sa vie et son oeuvre (1780-1867), Paris 1911
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1918Galerie Georges Petit, Catalogue des tableaux modernes et anciens, aquarelles, pastels, dessins, par Bartholomé … composant la collection de Edgar Degas, Paris, 26 March 1918 - 27 March 1918
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1919R. Dezsö, 'Ingres "Oedipusa" a és a British-Museum Meidias Hydriája', Jahrbüch des Museums der Bildende Kunste in Budapest, 1919, pp. 57-66
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1920P. Jamot, 'Comment Ingres a composé Oedipe et le Sphinx', Revue de l'art ancien et moderne, XXXVIII, 1920, pp. 57-9
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1936C.J. Holmes, Self and Partners (mostly Self), London 1936
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1942E.S. King, 'Ingres as Classicist', Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, V, 1942, pp. 68-113
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1944A. Mongan, 'Drawings by Ingres in the Winthrop Collection', Gazette des beaux-arts, XXVI, 1944, pp. 408-9
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1946Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, London 1946
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1948B.H. Polak, 'De invloed van enige monumenten der Oudheid op het Classicisme van David, Ingres, en Delacroix', Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, 1948, pp. 300ff
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1954G. Wildenstein, The Paintings of J. A. D. Ingres, London 1954
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1956N. Schlenoff, Ingres: Ses sources littéraires, Paris 1956
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1957Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
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1967G. Picon, Ingres, Geneva 1967
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1967R. Rosenblum, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, New York 1967
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1970Davies, Martin, and Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc., London 1970
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1982W.R. Johnston, The Nineteenth-Century Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore 1982
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1985A. Boime, 'Declassicizing the Academic: A Realist View of Ingres. Review of "Ingres: In Pursuit of Perfection"', Art History, VIIII, 1985, pp. 57-60
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1989D. Sutton, 'The Degas Sales and England', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXI/1033, 1989, pp. 266-72
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1989A. Roquebert, 'Degas collectionneur', in Degas Inédit, Actes du Colloque Degas, Musée d'Orsay (1988), Paris 1989, pp. 65-85
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1996A. Dumas, Degas as a Collector, London 1996
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1997A. Dumas et al., The Private Collection of Edgar Degas (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 October 1997 - 11 January 1998), New York 1997
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2008E. Kahng et al., The Repeating Image: Multiples in French Painting from David to Matisse (exh. cat. The Walters Art Museum, 20 January - 4 May 2008), New Haven 2008
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
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