Angelica at the rock (After ingres)

Georges Seurat rendered this study after Ingres in 1878 while a student at the École des Beaux-Arts. The work is a selective reduction of Ingres' "Roger Freeing Angelica," focusing only on the chained princess and omitting the heroic knight and sea monster. It's one of thirteen copies Seurat made after works by the French master draftsman.

Ingres' original depicted a scene from Ariosto's Orlando Furioso where Roger rescues Angelica from a sea monster. By isolating Angelica, Seurat created a different emotional tone, emphasizing her vulnerability rather than her rescue. The oil on canvas measures 83 by 66.3 centimeters.

It hangs at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. Norton Simon acquired it in 1982 from the collection that descended through the artist's family. This early Neoclassical work predates the Pointillist technique that would make Seurat famous.