Portrait of Monsieur Rivière

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres completed this Portrait of Monsieur Rivière in 1805, depicting Philibert Rivière de L'Isle, an influential court official in the Napoleonic Empire. This was part of Ingres' first major commission, completed when he was about 23 years old. Portraits of Rivière's wife and daughter Caroline accompanied this work, all considered among his early major works.

As an official commission, this portrait is more formal than Ingres' earlier depictions of friends. Rivière sits in an ornate chair beside a table draped with red velvet, his hand tucked inside his vest in a pose reminiscent of Napoleon. The painting shows influence from Jacques-Louis David, Ingres' teacher, while including a reproduction of Raphael's Madonna della seggiola in the background as artistic tribute.

The painting measures 116 x 89 cm and hangs at the Louvre in Paris. Ingres' portraits of the Rivière family established his reputation for combining classical precision with psychological insight. The flat, spatially restrictive composition is unusual for Ingres, who typically included preparatory sketches, none of which survive for this notable portrait.