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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867)
A French historical painter, Ingres was born at Montauban, and was the
leading exponent of the classical tradition in France in the 19th century.
His father was a sculptor, and intended that his son should cultivate
music as a profession. He actually made considerable progress in that
art, and in subsequent years never lost his interest in it, but his
predilection for painting proved the stronger. After having received
some elementary instruction from Roques, a pupil of Vien at Toulouse,
and from Vigan and Briant, two other local professors, he went to Paris
in 1796 to study painting under David. His version of Antiochus sending
back the son of Scipio Africanus gained him the second Rome prize
in 1800, and in 1801 he won the first prize with his Achilles receiving
the Ambassadors of Agamemnon. He soon quarrelled with David and
from 1806 to 1820 lived in Rome, where the individuality of his art
was gradually developed. He was much influenced by the study of the
works of Raphael, so that his style was described as a combination of
Raphael and David. In Rome, he began many of his famous nudes, including
Baigneuse and La Source. The latter was exhibited in London
at the International Exhibition of 1862. He also painted a series of
frescoes for the palace at Monte Cavallo. Many of the paintings he sent
to Paris from Rome were adversely noticed, except by Delacroix, whose
work Ingres detested. Ingres’ paintings display superb draughtsmanship,
but little interest in facial characteristics or colour. His motto was
'A thing well drawn is well enough painted'. He also painted historical
subjects such as Paolo and Francesca in 1819, and The Oath
of Louis XIII for Montaubon cathedral, which appeased the rival
schools of classicists and romantics in France. Ingres lived in Florence
for four years from 1820 before returning to Paris, where he opened
an atelier for students, and became the recognized leader of the Classicists
against the Romanticists. In 1826, he was appointed professor at the
Academy. His Apotheosis of Homer on the Louvre ceiling was well
received, but not The Martyrdom of St Symphorian completed in
1834 in the Autun cathedral. Between 1834 and 1841, Ingres was in Italy
again, becoming director of the French Academy in Rome. His Strotonice,
Vierge à l'hostie, and Odalisque à l'esclave re-established
him in favour in Paris and he returned in triumph at the expiration
of his seven years’ term of office in Rome and was welcomed by
his admirers with a banquet. He now began to reap the rewards of his
indomitable perseverance. His position was established, and his works
commanded good prices. Official recognition also was not lacking: he
was promoted to the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1845,
and to that of Grand Officer in 1855. In the Universal Exhibition of
this latter year in Paris, an entire saloon was devoted to his works,
and he and his chief opponent in art, Delacroix, were awarded gold medals.
In 1862, he was made a senator. Ingres was a marvellous instance of
an active old age; his La Source was produced in 1856, when he
was seventy-five, and he painted up to about a week before his death,
which took place at Paris.
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