Ingres's skill as a portrait draughtsman is evident in this deft characterization of Charles-Désiré Norry, who died in 1818, aged twenty-two, a year after he sat for this portrait. The elder of the two sons of the well-known architect Charles Norry (1757-1832), Charles-Désiré came to Rome to study architecture with the intention of emulating his father. When the elder Norry, who held a series of official posts with the Ministry of the Interior, came to Rome to visit his son in 1817, both Norrys sat for Ingres (the portrait of Charles was offered for sale, Sotheby's, New York, 24 January 2002, lot 96). Ingres inscribed the drawing to Charles, indicating it was a memento for the elder Norry to bring back to Paris while his son remained in Italy.
Signed, inscribed, and dated by the artist at lower left, "Ingres à Mr. Norry / Pere. / rome / 1817".
Watermark: none.
Norry, Charles, former owner.
Rouart, Henri, 1833-1912, former owner.
Rouart, Alexis, former owner.
Rouart, Louis-Henry, former owner.
Newberry, John S. (John Stoughton), 1910-1964, former owner.
Von Bülow, Claus, 1926-2019, donor.
Von Bülow, Martha Crawford, 1931-2008, donor.
"Detroit Sees France from David to Courbet," Art Digest, February 1950, repr. 13.
Recent Additions to the Collection of John S. Newberry, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 1951, no. 14, repr. as frontispiece.
French Painting, 1100-1900, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1951, no. 156, repr.
Thirty-Three French Drawings from the Collection of John S. Newberry, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1960, no. 20, repr.
Ingres in American Collections, Galerie Paul Rosenberg, New York, 1961, no. 24, repr.
Hans Naef, Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres, Bern, 1977-1978, II, 232, IV, no. 216, repr.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Eighteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975-1977. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1978, p. 269.