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Biographical Information:
The Neoclassicist painter Ingres was born in 1780 in Montauban. After an apprenticeship with his artist father and in Toulouse with his father’s colleagues, Ingres went to Paris in 1797 to study with Jacques-Louis David. Influenced by the new “Greek” doctrine of art championed in David’s studio, Ingres painted his “Envoys of Agamemnon” (1801) for which he won the Prix de Rome.
He moved to Rome in 1806 where he continued to work on portraits. In 1821 Ingres began to paint an enormous picture “The Vow of Louis XIII”. At the Paris Salon of 1824, the until then unsuccessful artist suddenly became famous with this work, influenced in many ways by Raphael. In 1825 Ingres was elected to the Institute of France and opened a studio for young painters. The next year he was awarded a commission for a ceiling in the Louvre, “The Apotheosis of Homer”. After he was criticized though for one of his paintings, he shun the Paris Salon and accepted the directorship of the Academy of France in Rome. There he inspired a groupe of Ingrists, who joined with his former students to spread his doctrine: emphasize drawing; use color as an adjunct of painting, not as an equal partner of drawing; follow the great masters and nature, and add their lessons to your talent; preserve the naiveté of your vision; emphasize line always; learn to simplify; round out and fortify the corner; flatten the picture space. During this period he produced “Odalisque with Slave” (1839).
Ingres was the last of the Neoclassicist painters before the Romantics took over. He always argued that drawing was superior to painting, although his paintings like “Odalisque” (1814) reveal a great sense of color, rich tones and textures. Despite Ingres’ worship of Raphael, his nude embodies no classical ideal of beauty.
Too young to share in the political passions of the Revolution, Ingres never was an enthusiastic follower of Napoleon. In 1806 he went to Italy and stayed there for 18 years. When he returned he followed the tradition of Jacques Louis David, defending it from the onslaughts of younger artists. What had been a revolutionary style only 50 years earlier, now became a rigid dogma, endorsed by the government and backed by the weight of conservative opinion.
Ingres’ life-long ambition were history paintings. But he had great difficulty with it, while portraiture, which he pretended to dislike, showed his strongest talent and was his steadiest source of income. He was the last professional in a field soon to be monopolized by the camera. His painting “Louis Berlin” (1832) looks at first glance like a photograph, but comparing it with a preliminary pencil drawing it shows much more interpretation. The portrait has a massive force of personality with a frightening intensity. Only Ingres could unify psychological depth and physical accuracy in that way. His followers concentrated on physical accuracy alone, competing vainly with the camera.
The Neo-Baroque Romantic painters , on the other hand, emphasized the psychological aspect to such a degree that their portraits tended to become records of the artist’s private emotional relationship with the person sitting to be painted.
In addition to the Ingrists, he influenced Degas in his early work, Renoir in his Ingrist period from 1880 on, Matisse and Picasso.
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Artists Works:
INGRES
Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique
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Related Information:
A Tribute to Ingres
ReNatssance
ReNATssance Art
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