Ingres

Jean-August-Dominique Ingres
(1780 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Although he
thought of himself as a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas
Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was his
portraits, both painted and drawn, that were recognized as his
greatest legacy.

Napoleon on his Imperial Throne

1806, oil on canvas, 260 x 163 cm, Muse
de l'Arme, Paris
Click on the portrait of Napoleon,
and compare the textures in this portait with those
of Rembrandt or Franz Hals, done in the 1600s.

Apotheose Homers
1827, Louvre

Madame Jacques-Louis LeBlanc (Francoise Poncelle)

1823 , The Metropolitan Museum, USA
Ingres did over two dozen preliminary drawings in preparation for
this painting. His work is clear and sharp and seems more like a
photograph than a painting.

Madame Marie Marcotte, 1826

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Ingres_Mad
ame_Marie_Marcotte.jpg

Click on this link and look for brushstrokes. Do you see any?
Ingres believed that it is imperative for the brushstrokes to be
blended, to create a pleasing surface.

Princesse Albert de Broglie, 1853

Oil on canvas, 47 3/4 x 35 5/8 inches
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan
Again, click on the picture above. The first color photograph was
not taken until 1861. The amazing realism of the fabric is one of
Ingres trademarks.

Louis-Francois Bertin
1832, oil on canvas, 116 x 96 cm, Louvre
The critics came to regard Ingres as the standard-bearer of
classicism against the romantic school - a role he relished. The
paintings, primarily portraits, that he sent to the Salon in 1827 and
1833 were well received. The portrait of Louis-Franois Bertin
(1832) was a particular success with the public, who found its
realism spellbinding, although some of the critics found its
naturalism vulgar and its coloring drab.

Marcotte d'Argenteuil
(Charles-Marie-Jean-Baptiste Marcotte)
1810

Franois-Marius Granet, 72cm x 61cm, 1807, Aix-en-Provence,

Muse Granet

Madame de Senonnes, 1,06m x 84cm, 1815, Nantes, Muse des

Beaux-Arts

Change of public tastes

Ingres was regarded as an effective teacher and was beloved by his

students at the cole de France, where he taught the neo-classical style.
Though he insisted that history paintings and sculpture were the highest form of
art, toward the end of his life, Ingres portraits were much more popular than his
history paintings, and the paintings for which he is most remembered today:

"for all the high ideals that had been drummed into Ingres at
the academies in Toulouse, Paris, and Rome, such
commissions were exceptions to the rule, for in reality there
was little demand for history paintings in the grand manner,
even in the city of Raphael and Michelangelo." Art collectors
preferred "light-hearted mythologies, recognizable scenes of
everyday life, landscapes, still lifes, or likenesses of men and
women of their own class.
Wikipedia.org