Patronage and Philanthropy: Flandrin's Portraits of Alexandre and Marie Legentil
Two pendant paintings by Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin provide insight into the artist’s innovative approach to portraiture, and the subjects' strong Catholic faith.
Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin was a highly respected academic painter in mid-19th-century France, and one of the most sought-after portraitists of his time for upper class society.
Early Life and Artistic Practice
Together with his brothers Auguste and Paul, he received his early artistic education in his birthplace, Lyon, before he moved to Paris to pursue his career.
Winning the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1832 allowed him to spend five years at the Villa Medici, home of the French Academy in Rome. Funded by the French government, this prize provided the foundation for a successful artistic career.
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In Rome, Flandrin worked closely with his former teacher, the renowned artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, who became director of the Villa Medici. The Byzantine and early Renaissance art that Flandrin encountered in Rome deeply inspired him, such as the Sancta Sanctorum.
Voûte de l'abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés (1001) by Pierre de MontreuilCity of Paris
Upon his return to France, Flandrin began receiving prominent church commissions for mural paintings like these, which he executed for Saint-Germain-des-Près in Paris. Over the next 20 years, he would play an influential role in the revival of monumental religious painting in France.
Flandrin also busied himself as a successful portraitist of the upper classes, who greatly admired the refined elegance, sober dignity, and polished execution of his likenesses.
From the 1840s through the early 1860s, Flandrin regularly exhibited his portraits at the official, state-sponsored Paris Salon, earning widespread critical acclaim.
A Second Generation of Art Patrons
Through his teacher Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Flandrin became acquainted with the Marcotte family, whose patriarch Marcotte d’Argenteuil was a friend and devoted patron of Ingres. He commissioned several paintings from Ingres, including this portrait of himself.
In 1846, while visiting the Marcotte family’s country house “Le Poncelet” just east of Paris, Ingres drew the likenesses of d’Argentueil’s daughter Marie and her fiancé Alexandre Legentil.
In affectionate letters, Ingres comforts his friend Marcotte, who struggled with the pending separation from his beloved daughter as she embarked on married life.
Through their close ties to Ingres, the Marcottes also had special access to his pupils. In the late 1850s, Marie and Alexandre Legentil commissioned their portraits from Ingres's most highly regarded student, Flandrin.
The artist had recently painted the mural decorations for Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, the Legentils’s parish church in Paris.
Portrait of Marie Legentil (1857) by Jean-Hippolyte FlandrinThe J. Paul Getty Museum
While studying with Ingres in Paris and Rome, Flandrin was determined to develop his own style. Nevertheless, his mature work—especially his portraiture—clearly emulates his former teacher’s example.
Madame Moitessier (1851) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique IngresNational Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The Portrait of Marie Legentil presents the sitter against a rich background –a silk damask wall covering– just as Ingres did in his Portrait of Madame Moitessier, executed six years earlier.
Portrait of Marie Legentil (1857) by Jean-Hippolyte FlandrinThe J. Paul Getty Museum
Marie’s low, lace-trimmed bodice reveals the luminous skin of her chest, shoulders and arms, which Flandrin, emulating Ingres, has modeled with exquisite subtlety.
In both portraits, the women’s black evening dresses—accentuated by rings, bracelets, brooches, and necklaces— are in line with the reigning fashion of the time.
Also very much on trend, their dark, glossy hair is parted in the center, brushed down and arranged heavily on the sides, covering their ears.
Portrait of Marie Legentil (1857) by Jean-Hippolyte FlandrinThe J. Paul Getty Museum
Marie’s delicate veil, pinned to the back of her hair, indicates her marital status. Her likeness was, however, exhibited alone, without the companion portrait of her husband, which Flandrin painted the following year.
Exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1857, the portrait of Marie was highly acclaimed in the press. Many critics singled out the portrait and praised its beauty, elegance, and poise.
Comment, c'est dans cette cave que sont les scultpures?..., from Le Salon de 1857, published in Le Charivari, July 2, 1857 (July 2, 1857) by Aaron Martinet|Honoré Daumier|DestouchesThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
One of the visitors said that the beautifully executed painting appealed especially to painting connoisseurs. Enamored with the attractive sitter, another said that it “made them blush.”
Indeed, more than a few visitors admired the charms of the model and the air of ease that reigns in the portrait. The success of Marie’s portrait in the Salon helped drive the growing demand for Flandrin’s portraits, which he found impossible to meet.
Portrait of Alexandre Legentil (1858) by Jean-Hippolyte FlandrinThe J. Paul Getty Museum
The portrait of Alexandre Legentil was painted one year later in 1858. He appears in his everyday clothing—a long black jacket over loose gray trousers—with his arms modestly crossed and right hand raised thoughtfully to his chin.
The soft velvet armchair and side table with its patterned carpet and precious inkstand—ornamented with tortoiseshell veneer, brass inlays, and gilt-bronze mounts—indicate his status as a cultivated bourgeois gentleman.
Grouped: Portrait of Alexandre and Marie Legentil (1857/1858) by Jean-Hippolyte FlandrinThe J. Paul Getty Museum
Together, the portraits hang beautifully as a pair. The rightward orientation of Alexandre’s body reverses that of his wife, while the green-and-red color scheme of his surroundings contrasts effectively with the striking blue and yellow notes in the portrait of Marie.
Portrait of Marie Legentil (detail of reverse) (1857) by Jean-Hippolyte FlandrinThe J. Paul Getty Museum
As a glimpse into the personal lives of the Legentils, the back of Marie’s portrait is labeled with a burning heart encircled by a crown of thorns. It declares “Stop! The heart of Jesus is with us.”
The burning heart on this sticker is the symbol of the Société du Sacré-Cœur de Jésus (Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). The sticker, widely distributed by the Society, was supposed to protect its carrier from evil. It grew particularly popular among the girls’ schools and Catholic women’s organizations that Marie was active in.
Both Marie and Alexandre had strong religious convictions. In 1871, through a highly publicized vow, Alexandre initiated the ambitious project to build the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre.
Marie also pursued her own philanthropic initiatives, dedicating herself to the vocational training of young women.
Marie lived long enough to witness the consecration of the Sacré-Cœur in 1919, three decades after Alexandre’s death. She passed away one year later, joining her husband in the crypt of the basilica.
Grouped: Portrait of Alexandre and Marie Legentil (1857/1858) by Jean-Hippolyte FlandrinThe J. Paul Getty Museum
The portraits of the Legentils were exhibited together only once, in 1865 during the posthumous Flandrin retrospective at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. They remained in the family’s possession until 2024. Finally, they can be viewed together by the public again.
© 2025 The J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles
This Google Arts & Culture story was created by Getty Graduate Interns Pax Veerbeek (curation) and Francesca Weir (production).
The analysis of the reverse of the frames of Alexandre and Marie Legentil is part of Getty Scholar Pascal Labreuche's research, whose online database can be accessed on Labreuche Guide.
To cite this exhibition, please use: "A Sacred Heart Within Them" published online in 2026 via Google Arts & Culture, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
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