Neoclassicism, Romanticism, & Rococo

Jean-Auguste Ingres

Born in Montauban, France on August 29, 1780. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French painter who was controversial due to his work and opinions on other works of art.

Self-portrait (c.1800) – After his father, Jean-Auguste was later taught by Jaques-Louis David for two years. After learning from David, Ingres began studying at Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1799 to 1801. Ingress later had the opportunity to study at Académie de France in Rome but was unable to due to financial constraints.

His family had an artistic background, he received his first art lessons from his father. Ingres continued developing his skills in portraiture and history painting. Ingres was well-known for his portraits, but he strangely preferred to paint historical events, thinking lowly of portraiture.

He was meticulous about details in his works, and preferred precision, despising works of novelty, improvisation and sloppiness which he considered as ugly.

“Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne” (c.1806), was considered stiff and old-fashioned by critics in terms of style but was intentional on Ingres’ part. Ingres’s painted what he wanted to paint on impulse, disregarding art trends. Most critics thought negatively of his work and considered Ingres’s art style as ‘Gothic’. This piece was showcased in one of the ‘Salons’ that Ingres participated in.

Ingres’ work received publicity in ‘Salons’, which were official contemporary art exhibitions where he displayed his portraits and historical works. There, he implemented the technique of distorting figures and space.

The Vow of Louis XIII (c.1824) – Though this painting improved his reputation with critics, Ingres experienced a fall-out in the 1834 ‘Salon’, where he exhibited a religious work that made critics think lowly of Ingres. He was incredibly hypersensitive and reacted by vowing not to participate in future ‘Salons’.

Future works featured nude women, attracting negative views that were later extinguished in future ‘Salons’, with Ingres receiving critical acclaim in Paris with works such as the one above.

La Grande Odalisque (c.1814) depicted a woman in a less-appealing pose and with unnatural proportions. It was negatively considered as surreal, with one critic claiming that the woman had one too many vertebrae.

Ingres would eventually die on January 14, 1867, in Paris, but not without having ties with highly-regarded figures such as the King of France. In consensus, his explorations of distorting space and anatomy left an impression in the 20th century, influencing the likes of Picasso and Matisse.

The Source (c.1856) – Despite the controversy, Ingres’s nude paintings were his most notable works. He succeeded Jaques-Louis David as a master of Neoclassical painting, which was considered as the opposite of Romanticism. As such, Eugene Delacroix was assumed to be Ingres’s greatest rival.

WORKS CITED

  • “Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique.” Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Britannica Digital Learning, 2017. Credo Reference, https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.capilanou.ca/content/entry/ebconcise/ingres_jean_auguste_dominique/0?institutionId=6884. Accessed 19 Oct. 2019.
  • Gombrich, E.H. “Permanent Revolution: The nineteenth century” The Story of Art, by Ernst Hans. GOMBIRCH, 16th ed., Phaidon, 1995
  • Shelton, Andrew C. “J.-A.-D. Ingres.” Biographies, 25 Aug. 2019. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-A-D-Ingres. Accessed 19 Oct. 2019.

IMAGES OBTAINED FROM

  • https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-A-D-Ingres/images-videos
  • https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/paintings/napoleon-i-on-his-imperial-throne/
  • http://mini-site.louvre.fr/ingres/1.4.3.1_en.html
  • https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-auguste-dominique-ingres/the-source-1856
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