Picture of the day

Portrait of Charles Marcotte (also known as Marcotte d'Argenteuil) is an 1810 oil-on-canvas painting by the French Neoclassical artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, completed during the artist's first stay in Rome. It depicts the eponymous Charles Marcotte (1773-1864), who was a long-term friend and supporter of Ingres and commissioned the work initially as a gift for his mother. Marcotte was 23 years old when the portrait was painted and serving as inspector general for waters and forests in Napoleonic Rome. In the painting, he stands against a plain grey-green background, leaning against a table draped with a red cloth. His stiff, starched white and yellow neck collar appears tight and restrictive. Marcotte did not like the final painting, finding it too stern, and it remained in his possession until his death. It is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., United States.Painting credit: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres