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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
(1780–1867)

Biographical

Knight of the Order of St Joseph 1858 [Tuscany]
Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour 1855 [France]
Commander of the Legion of Honour 1845 [France]
Officer of the Legion of Honour 1833 [France]
Knight of the Legion of Honour 1825 [France]
Order of Pour le Merite for Science and the Arts 1842 [Prussia]
Grand Prix de Rome 1801

Senator 1862
Member of the Imperial Council 1862

A French Neoclassical painter, Ingres is considered the dominant painter of France in his time, one of the greatest draftsmen in world art. His father, for whom he entertained the most tender and respectful affection, described himself as a plaster sculptor; he was, however, equally ready to execute every other kind of decorative work, and now and again eked out his living by taking portraits or obtained an engagement as a violin-player. He brought up his son to command the same varied resources, but in consequence of certain early successes — his son's performance of a concerto of Viotti’s was applauded at the theatre of Toulouse — his attention was directed chiefly to the study of music. At Toulouse, to which place his father had removed from Montauban in 1792, Ingres had, however, received lessons from Joseph Roques, a painter whom he quitted at the end of a few months to become a pupil of M. Vigan, professor at the academy of fine arts in the same town. From Vigan, Ingres, whose vocation became 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 line as himself. For a while Ingres obeyed, but he had been thoroughly aroused and enlightened as to his own objects and desires by the sight of a copy of Raphael’s Madonna della Sedia, and, having ended his connexion with Briant, he started for Paris, where he arrived about the close of 1796. He was then admitted to the studio of David, for whose lofty standard and severe principles he always retained a profound appreciation. Ingres, after four years of devoted study, during which, in 1800, he obtained second place in the yearly competition, finally carried off the Grand Prix du Rome in 1801. The work thus rewarded—the Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the Tent of Achilles—was admired by Flaxman so much as to give umbrage to David. This was succeeded by the execution of other notable paintings and minor works in Paris, and they produced a disturbing impression on the public. It was clear that the artist was someone who must be counted with; his talent, the purity of his line, and his power of literal rendering were generally acknowledged; but he was reproached with a desire to be singular and extraordinary by critics. After his arrival in Rome in 1808, Ingres produced Oedipus and the Sphinx, a work which proved him in the full possession of his mature powers, and then followed some of his best portraits and historical paintings. During his years in Rome, Ingres’ reputation in France did not increase. The interest which his Chapelle Sistine had aroused at the Salon of 1814 soon died away; not only was the public indifferent, but amongst his brother artists Ingres found scant recognition. The strict classicists looked upon him as a renegade, and strangely enough Delacroix and other pupils of Guérin—the leaders of that romantic movement for which Ingres, throughout his long life, always expressed the deepest abhorrence—alone seem to have been sensible of his merits. The weight of poverty, too, was hard to bear. In 1813, Ingres had married; his marriage had been arranged for him with a young woman who came in a business-like way from Montauban, on the strength of the representations of her friends in Rome. Mme Ingres speedily acquired a faith in her husband which enabled her to combat with heroic courage and patience the difficulties which beset their common existence, and which were increased by their removal to Florence. There Bartolini, an old friend, had hoped that Ingres 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 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 bread by the making of those small portraits for the execution of which, in Rome, his pencil had been constantly in 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 order for Ingres from the Administration of Fine Arts; he was directed to treat the Vœu de Louis XIII for the cathedral of Montauban. This work, exhibited at the Salon of 1824, met with universal approbation: even those sworn to observe the unadulterated precepts of David found only admiration for the painting. On his return to France in 1824, Ingres was received at Montauban with enthusiastic homage, and found himself celebrated throughout France. In the following year he was elected to the 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 government called forth the Apotheosis of Homer, which, replaced by a copy in the decoration of the ceiling for which it was designed, now hangs in the Louvre. From this date up until 1834, the studio of Ingres was thronged, as once had been thronged the studio of David, and he was a recognised chef d’école. Whilst he taught with despotic authority and admirable wisdom, he steadily worked; and when in 1834 he produced his great canvas of the Martyrdom of Saint Symphorien for the cathedral of Autun, 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 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 École de France, in the room of Horace Vernet. In 1840, Ingres executed his Antiochus and Stratonice for the duke of Orléans, which had been exhibited at the Palais Royal for several days after its arrival in France, and the beauty of the composition produced so favourable an impression that, on his return to Paris in 1841, Ingres found himself received with all the deference that he felt to be his due. A portrait of the duke of Orléans was one of the first works executed after his return; and Ingres shortly afterwards began the decorations of the great hall in the Château de Dampierre, which, unfortunately for the reputation of the painter, were begun with an ardour which gradually slackened, until in 1849 Ingres, having been further discouraged by the loss of his faithful and courageous wife, abandoned all hope of their completion, and the contract with the duc de Luynes was finally cancelled. In 1855, he participated in the International Exhibition, where a room was reserved for his works. Prince Napoleon, president of the jury, proposed an exceptional recompense for their author, and obtained from the emperor Ingres’s nomination as grand officer of the Legion of Honour. With restored confidence, Ingres now took up and completed one of his most charming productions—“La Source” and with its exhibition, amongst other works, in London in 1862, there was a renewal of general sentiment of admiration, and procured him, from the imperial government, the dignity of senator. Ingres continued to work until his death at the age of 88, having preserved his faculties in wonderful perfection to the last, and showed in his last years the vigour which marked his early maturity.

Place of birth: Tarn-et-Garonne, Montauban
Place of death: Paris

Son of Jean-Marie-Joseph Ingres and Anne Moulet. He was married firstly to Madeleine Chapelle in 1813, and secondly to Delphine Ramel in 1852. His only child, from his first marriage, died a year after birth.

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