Portrait of Lord Grantham

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

1816

Graphite

J. Paul Getty Museum

Thomas Robinson, the third Baron Grantham and later Earl de Grey, was thirty-five when Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres drew this refined portrait. Ingres chose a pose that combined the informality of youth and the self-assurance of his subject's aristocratic origins. Grantham, who commissioned this portrait himself, stands confidently against a distant view of Saint Peter's Basilica, an important site for Grand Tourists and one that Ingres often included in portraits. Ingres made this drawing when he was a struggling young artist living in Rome, earning his living by drawing portraits of wealthy visitors to the city.