Follower of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780-1867), "Portrait of a Man, Facing Right", mid-19th c., black chalk on cream-colored paper with ruled border, pierced along left edge, with faint but untranslatable watermark, unsigned, but initialed within bottom of image "J [or JA?]"; and inscribed in a 20th c. hand in pencil at bottom of mount, "Ingres-Esquisse d'album", 5 x 3 7/8 in., in a mid-20th c. mount. Provenance: Probably H. R. Stirlin, Saint-Prez, Switzerland (sold by him, 1960); definitely art market, Rome, 1961; purchased there by James R. Lamantia Jr., New Orleans and New York. Note : Despite its optimistic mount inscription, this "album page" is smaller than the standard small paper that Ingres habitually used. Two clues as to the identity of its author are offered (first) by the very clear initial "J" (or "JA", if the second letter is not merely an accident of the shading) that is prominently worked into the bottom of the image itself; and (second) by the personal style of th artist. Two plausible candidates for the technique of drawing, a generation apart-but still well within the range of Ingres' long lifetime-are Pierre-Jean David d'Angers (1788-1856), whose ink study for his 1826 portrait medallion of Ingres exhibits a closely comparable style (Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University); and Charles-François Sellier (1830-1882), whose Standing Male Nude of c. 1850 has a head almost identical to this, in pose, coiffure, physiognomy, expression, medium, and technique (Shepherd Gallery, New York, spring exhibition 1987, no. 113). Indeed the resemblance to Sellier's head is so very striking that one would not hesitate to ascribe this sheet to him, were it not for the non-conforming initial(s) inscribed within the bottom of this image. There is always the possibility, however, that such were inserted by the same writer who applied the apocryphal "Ingres" ascription to the mount; it may have been hoped by that writer that they might perhaps be taken to abbreviate Ingres' given names, "J[ean-]A[uguste]"-though Ingres apparently never once signed himself this way. The identity of the 20th c. collector who inscribed the apocryphal name on the mount, at any rate, can be established without reasonable doubt as H. R. Stirlin of Switzerland, whose handwriting on an Ingres drawing of Lucien Bonaparte (that Stirlin owned from 1928 to 1960) precisely matches the inscription on this mount (1999 exhibition, no. 38); Stirlin also sold his authentic Ingres drawing (as well as this one?) exactly one year before Lamantia bought this related sheet in Rome. References: Gary Tinterow and Philip Conisbee, eds., with drawings entries by Hans Naef, Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch, New York, 1999, pp. 158-160, no. 38; p. 548, fig. 335 (David d'Angers at the Fogg), and passim; Elisabeth and Robert Kashey, French 19th C. Drawings..., New York, 1987, no. 113 (Sellier)."