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INGRES, JEAN AUGUSTE DOMINIQUE (178o-...
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See also:INGRES, See also:JEAN AUGUSTE DOMINIQUE (178o-1867) , See also:French painter, was See also:born at See also:Montauban, on the 29th of See also:August 1780. His See also:father, for whom he entertained the most See also:tender and respectful See also:affection, has described himself as sculpteur en pldtre; he was, however, equally ready to execute every other See also:kind of decorative See also:work, and now and again eked out his living by taking portraits or obtained an engagement as a See also:violin-player. He brought up his son to command the same varied resources, but in consequence of certain See also:early successes—the lad's performance of a See also:concerto of See also:Viotti's was applauded at the See also:theatre of See also:Toulouse—his See also:attention was directed chiefly to the study of See also:music. At Toulouse, to which See also:place his father had removed from Montauban in 1792, Ingres had, however, received lessons from See also:Joseph Roques, a painter whom he quitted at the end of a few months to become a See also:pupil of M. See also:Vigan, See also:professor at the See also:academy of See also:fine arts in the same See also:town. From Vigan, Ingres, whose vocation became See also:day by day more distinctly evident, passed to M. Briant, a landscape-painter who insisted that his pupil was specially gifted by nature to follow the same See also:line as himself. For a while Ingres obeyed, but he had been thoroughly aroused and en-lightened as to his own See also:objects and desires by the sight of a copy of See also:Raphael's " Madonna della Sedia," and, having ended his connexion with Briant, he started for See also:Paris, where he arrived about the See also:close of 1796. He was then admitted to the studio of See also:David, for whose lofty See also:standard and severe principles he always retained a profound appreciation. Ingres, after four years of devoted study, during which (1800) he obtained the second place in the yearly competition, finally carried off the See also:Grand Prix (r8or). The work thus rewarded—the " Ambassadors of See also:Agamemnon in the See also:Tent of See also:Achilles " (tcole See also:des See also:Beaux Arts)—was admired by See also:Flaxman so much as to give umbrage to David, and was succeeded in the following See also:year (18oz) by the See also:execution of a " Girl after Bathing," and a woman's portrait; in 1804 Ingres exhibited " Portrait of the First See also:Consul " (Musee de See also:Liege), and portraits of his father and himself; these were followed in 18o6 by " Portrait of the See also:Emperor " (luvalides), and portraits of M, Mme, and Mlle See also:Riviere (the first two now in the Louvre). These and various See also:minor See also:works were executed in Paris (for it was not until 1809 that the See also:state of public affairs admitted of the re-See also:establishment of the Academy of See also:France at See also:Rome), and they produced a disturbing impression on the public. It was clear that the artist was some one who must be counted with; his See also:talent, the purity of his line, and his See also:power of literal rendering were generally acknowledged; but he was reproached with a See also:desire to be singular and extraordinary. " Ingres," writes Frau v. Hastfer (Leben and Kunst in Paris, 1806) " wird nach Italien gehen, and See also:dort wird er vielleicht vergessen See also:dass er zu etwas Grossem geboren ist, and wird eben darum ein hohes Ziel erreichen." In this spirit, also, Chaussard violently attacked his " Portrait of the Emperor " (See also:Pausanias See also:Francais, 18o6), nor did the portraits of the Riviere See also:family See also:escape. The points on which Chaussard justly See also:lays stress are the See also:strange discordances of See also:colour—such as the See also:blue of the See also:cushion against which Mme Riviere leans, and the want of the See also:relief and warmth of See also:life, but he omits to See also:touch on that grasp of his subject as a whole, shown in the portraits of both See also:husband and wife, which already evidences the strength and sincerity of the passionless point of view which marks all Ingres's best productions. The very year after his arrival in Rome (18o8) Ingres produced " See also:Oedipus andthe See also:Sphinx " (Louvre; lithographed by Sudre, engraved by See also:Gaillard), a work which proved him in the full See also:possession of his mature See also:powers, and began the " See also:Venus See also:Anadyomene " (Collection Rieset; See also:engraving by Pollet), completed See also:forty years later, and exhibited in 1855. These works were followed by some of his best portraits, that of M. Bochet (Louvre), and that of Mme la Comtesse de See also:Tournon, See also:mother of the See also:prefect of the See also:department of the See also:Tiber; in 1811 he finished " See also:Jupiter and See also:Thetis," an immense See also:canvas now in the Musee of See also:Aix; in I€1z " See also:Romulus and See also:Acron " (Ecole des Beaux Arts), and " See also:Virgil See also:reading the Aeneid "—a See also:composition very different from the version of it which has become popular through the engraving executed by See also:Pradier in 1832. The See also:original work, executed for a bedchamber in the See also:Villa Aldobrandini-Miollis, contained neither the figures of See also:Maecenas and See also:Agrippa nor the statue of See also:Marcellus; and Ingres, who had obtained possession of it during his second stay in Rome, intended to See also:complete it with the additions made for engraving. But he never got beyond the See also:stage of preparation, and the picture See also:left by him, together with various other studies and sketches, to the Musee of his native town, remains See also:half destroyed by the See also:process meant for its regeneration. The " Virgil " was followed by the " See also:Betrothal of Raphael," a small See also:painting, now lost, executed for See also:Queen See also:Caroline of .See also:Naples; " See also:Don Pedro of See also:Toledo Kissing the See also:Sword of See also: " See also:Roger and Angelique " (Louvre; lithographed by Sudre), and " Francesca di See also:Rimini " (Musee of See also:Angers; lithographed by Aubry Lecomte), were completed in 181g, and followed in 18zo by " See also:Christ giving the Keys to See also:Peter " (Louvre). In 1815, also, Ingres had made many projects for treating a subject from the life of the celebrated See also:duke of See also:Alva, a See also:commission from the family, but a loathing for " cet horrible homme " See also:grew upon him, and finally he abandoned the.task and entered in his See also:diary—" J'etais force See also:par la necessite de peindre un pareil tableau; Dieu a voulu qu'il resat en ebauche." During all these years Ingres's reputation in France did not increase. The See also:interest which his " Chapelle Sistine " had aroused at the Salon of 1814 soon died away; not only was the public indifferent, but amongst his See also:brother artists Ingres found scant recognition. The strict classicists looked upon him as a renegade, and strangely enough See also:Delacroix and other pupils of See also:Guerin—the leaders of that romantic See also:movement for which Ingres, throughout his See also:long life, always expressed the deepest abhorrence—alone seem to have been sensible of his merits. The See also:weight of poverty, too, was hard to See also:bear. In 1813 Ingres had married; his See also:marriage had been arranged for him with a See also:young woman who came in a business-like way from Montauban, on the strength of the representations of her See also:friends in Rome. Mme Ingres speedily acquired a faith in her husband which enabled her to combat with heroic courage and See also:patience the difficulties which beset their See also:common existence, and which were increased by their removal to See also:Florence. There See also:Bartolini, an old friend, had hoped that lagres might have materially bettered his position, and that he might have aroused the Florentine school—a weak offshoot from that of David—to a sense of its own shortcomings. These expectations were disappointed. The See also:good offices of Bartolini, and of one or two other persons, could only alleviate the miseries of this stay in a town where Ingres was all but deprived of the means of gaining daily See also:bread by the making of those small portraits for the execution of which, in Rome, his See also:pencil had been constantly in See also:request. Before his departure he had, however, been commissioned to paint for M. de Pastoret the " Entry of
Charles V. into Paris," and M. de Pastoret now obtained an See also:order for Ingres from the See also:Administration of Fine Arts; he was directed to treat the " Veeu de See also: In the following year (1825) he was elected to the See also:Institute, and his fame was further extended in 1826 by the publication of Sudre's lithograph of the " Grande Odalisque," which, having been scorned by artists and. critics alike in 1819, now became widely popular. A second commission from the See also:government called forth the " See also:Apotheosis of See also:Homer," which, replaced by a copy in the decoration of the See also:ceiling for which it was designed, now hangs in the galleries of the second See also:storey of the Louvre. From this date up till 1834 the studio of Ingres was thronged, as once had been thronged the studio of David, and he was a recognized chef d'ecole. Whilst he taught with despotic authority and admirable See also:wisdom, he steadily worked; and when in 1834 he produced his See also:great canvas of the " Martyrdom of See also:Saint Symphorien " (cathedral of See also:Autun; lithographed by Trichot-Garneri), it was with angry disgust and resentment that he found his work received with the same doubt and indifference, if not the same hostility, as had met his earlier ventures. The suffrages of his pupils, and of one or two men—like See also:Decamps—of undoubted ability, could not soften the sense of injury. Ingres resolved to work no longer for the public, and gladly availed himself of the opportunity to return to Rome, as director of the Ecole de France, in the See also:room of See also:Horace See also:Vernet. There he executed " La See also:Vierge a I'Hostie " (Imperial collections, St See also:Petersburg), " Stratonice," " Portrait of See also:Cherubini " (Louvre), and the " Petite Odalisque " for M. Marcotte, the faithful admirer for whom, in 1814, Ingres had painted the " Chapelle Sistine." The " Stratonice," executed for the duke of See also: After the completion of " La Source," the See also:principal works produced by Ingres were with one or two exceptions (" See also:Moliere " and " Louis XIV.," presented to the Theatre See also:Francois, 1858; " Le See also:Bain Turc," 1859), of a religious See also:character; " La Vierge de 1'See also:Adoption," 1858 (painted for Mlle See also:Roland-Gosselin), was followed by " La Vierge Couronnee " (painted for Mme la Baronne de Larinthie) and " La Vierge aux Enfans " (Collection See also:Blanc); in 1859 these were followed by repetitions of " La Vierge a 1'Hostie "; andin 1862 Ingres completed " Christ and the Doctors " (Musee Montauban), a work commissioned many years before by Queen See also:Marie Amelie for the See also:chapel of Bizy. On the 17th of See also:January 1867 Ingres died in his eighty-eighth year, having preserved his faculties in wonderful perfection to the last. For a moment only—at the See also:time of the execution of the " Bain Turc," which Prince Napoleon was See also:fain to See also:exchange for an early portrait of the See also:master by himself—Ingres's powers had seemed to fail, but he recovered, and showed in his last years the vigour which marked his early maturity. It is, however, to be noted that the " Saint Symphorien " exhibited in 1834 closes the See also:list of the works on which his reputation will chiefly See also:rest; for " La Source," which at first sight seems to be an exception, was painted, all but the See also:head and the extremities, in 1821; and from those who knew the work well in its incomplete state we learn that the after-painting, necessary to fuse new and old, lacked the vigour, the precision, and the something like touch which distinguished the original execution of the torso. Touch was not, indeed, at any time a means of expression on which Ingres seriously calculated; his See also:constant employment of See also:local tint, in See also:mass but faintly modelled in See also:light by half tones, forbade recourse to the shifting effects of colour and light on which the Romantic school depended in indicating those fleeting aspects of things which they rejoiced to put on canvas;—their methods would have disturbed the calculations of an See also:art wholly based on See also:form and line. Except in his " Sistine Chapel," and one or two slighter pieces, Ingres kept himself See also:free from any preoccupation as to See also:depth and force of colour and See also:tone; driven, probably by the excesses of the Romantic movement into an attitude of stricter protest, " ce que Pon sait " he would repeat, " it faut le savoir Tepee a la See also:main." Ingres left himself therefore, in dealing with crowded compositions, such as the " Apotheosis of Homer " and the " Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien," without the means of producing the necessary unity of effect which had been employed in due measure—as the Stanze of the Vatican bear See also:witness—by the very master whom he most deeply reverenced. Thus it came to pass that in subjects of one or two figures Ingres showed to the greatest See also:advantage: in " Oedipus," in the " Girl after Bathing," the " Odalisque " and " La Source " —subjects only animated by the consciousness of perfect See also:physical well-being—we find Ingres at his best. One hesitates to put " Roger and Angelique " upon this list, for though the See also:female figure shows the finest qualities of Ingres's work, deep study of nature in her purest forms, perfect sincerity of intention and power of mastering an ideal conception—yet See also:side by side with these the effigy of Roger on his hippogriff bears witness that from the passionless point of view, which was Ingres's birthright, the weird creatures of the See also:fancy cannot be seen. A graphic See also:account of " Ingres, sa See also:vie et ses travaux," and a complete See also:catalogue of his works, were published by M. See also:Delaborde in 1870, and dedicated to Mme Ingres, nee Ramel, Ingres's devoted second wife, whom he married in 1852. Allusions to the painter's early days will be found in Delecluze's Louis David; and amongst less important notices may be cited that by See also:Theophile See also:Silvestre in his See also:series of living artists. Most of See also:Ingress important works are engraved in the collection brought out by 1\iIagimel. (E. F. S. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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