French Neoclassical painter
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
was born,
August 29, 1780
in Montauban, in southern France
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A man profoundly respectful of the past, he assumed the role of a guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style represented by his nemesis Eugene Delacroix. His exemplars, he once explained, were
“the great masters which flourished in that century of glorious memory when Raphael set the eternal and incontestable bounds of the sublime in art … I am thus a conservator of good doctrine, and not an innovator.”
Although he considered himself a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, it is his portraits, both painted and drawn, that are recognized as his greatest legacy. His expressive distortions of form and space made him an important precursor of modern art, influencing Picasso, Matisse and other modernists.
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So here’s a glimpse of his work & words
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“One must keep right on drawing; draw with your eyes when you cannot draw with a pencil.”
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“Better gray than garishness.”
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“The chief consideration for a good painter is to think out the whole of his picture, to have it in his head as a whole… so that he may then execute it with warmth and as if the entire thing were done at the same time.”
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“Drawing includes three and a half quarters of the content of painting… Drawing contains everything, except the hue.”
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“The exhibition has now become no more than a bazaar where mediocrity spreads itself out with impudence. The exhibitions are useless and dangerous… they ought to be abolished.”
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“Muscles I know; they are my friends. But I have forgotten their names.”
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“Make copies, young man, many copies. You can only become a good artist by copying the masters.”
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“As long as you do not hold a balance between your seeing of things and your execution, you will do nothing that is really good.”
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“Fine and delicate taste is the fruit of education and experience.”
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“It takes 25 years to learn to draw, one hour to learn to paint.”
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“You have to observe flowers in order to find the right tones for the folds of clothes.”
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“There is true color, there is nature without exaggeration, without forced brilliance! He is exact.”
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“Is there anyone among the great men who has not imitated? Nothing is made with nothing.”
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“The way good inventions are made is to familiarize yourself with those of others. The men who cultivate letters and the arts are all sons of Homer.”
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“A painter can turn pennies into gold, for all subjects are capable of being transformed into poems.”
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“Drawing is the honesty of art.”
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“Do not concern yourself with other people. Concern yourself with your own work alone.”
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“Draw lines – draw a lot of lines”
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Drawings
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Self Portraits
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Ingres’s well-known passion for playing the violin gave rise to a common expression in the French language, “violon d’Ingres”. He was an amateur violin player from his youth, and played for a time as second violinist for the orchestra of Toulouse. When he was Director of the French Academy in Rome, he played frequently with the music students and guest artists. Charles Gounod, who was a student under Ingres at the Academy, merely noted that “he was not a professional, even less a virtuoso”. Along with the student musicians, he performed Beethoven string quartets with Niccolò Paganini. In an 1839 letter, Franz Liszt described his playing as “charming”, and planned to play through all the Mozart and Beethoven violin sonatas with Ingres. Liszt also dedicated his transcriptions of the 5th and 6th symphonies of Beethoven to Ingres on their original publication in 1840.
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So here is Franz Liszt Piano Transcription of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, S. 464 “Pastoral”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Franz Liszt Piano Transcription
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piano: Glenn Gould
&
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Violinsonate F Dur KV 376
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violin: Anne Sophie Mutter • piano: Lambert Orkis
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For more information on Ingres:
https://www.jeanaugustedominiqueingres.org/
https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-auguste-dominique-ingres
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/jean-auguste-dominique-ingres
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=Ingres
Marina Kanavaki 
He painted like he was a camera.
Then, the camera was invented!
Beautiful portraits!
Thank you, again, Marina!
xoxo🧽xoxo🧽xoxo 🎨xoxo🧽xoxo🧽xoxo 🎨xoxo🧽xoxo🧽xoxo 🎨
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Yes he did, however a camera could never capture these as his heart was in every single brushstroke! 😉
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These are awesome. Recognize most of the paintings and I think I actually saw one of the drawings after it became a painting at the National Gallery in Ottawa? Maybe? Maybe not?
The part about his violin playing reminds me of myself in all of my musical endeavors! In Junior Strings the teacher singled me out to play my cello, not for my technical proficiency but for my vibrato and feel. Other students could read music better but were robotic… I didn’t last very long in junior strings. Actually faked it a lot of the time because I was doing other things instead of practicing !!! The funny thing is, our instructor told us to fake it during performances if we couldn’t hit the right notes. Better silence than discord, I guess! 🙂
Love “The Source” but several others really are top-notch. Your writing too seems to have hit a new peak. Nice. 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed the tribute. Love your cello story! I was too lazy to read so i cunningly asked the teacher to play the piece and I’d learn it by ear! 🤣😂 Thank you on your kind words about writing, as you know I’m not much of a word person…. with a little help(!) from wikipedia and the rest is Ingres himself! 🤣😂🤣😉
Have a lovely …Hump Day!
‘least you could learn it by ear! I guess that’s why you and yours have a CD out and I’m still pluggin’ away the ol’ piano! 🙂 Cheers. 🙂 🙂
I think you’re being unjust on yourself! 😉
Well, I have all sorts of ideas and songs… But their execution is another matter. Thank you, though…. 😊☺️😁🙂💯💫✨⭐💫
🙂 🙂 🙂 …ideas is where it’s at! 😉
in heaven… not dans le monde 😁😀😸
Fine by me! 😉 Heaven sounds much better!
https://youtu.be/dlvFiOQQ5y0 🙂
Ah, yes the Staples …and Mavis…
People have pointed out about “La Grande Odalisque” that the woman has more than the normal number of vertebrae in her backbone. Wikipedia gets specific: “Stemming from the initial criticism the painting received, the figure in “Grande Odalisque” is thought to be drawn with ‘two or three vertebrae too many.’ Critics at the time believed the elongations to be errors on the part of Ingres, but recent studies show the elongations to have been deliberate distortions. Measurements taken on the proportions of real women showed that Ingres’s figure was drawn with a curvature of the spine and rotation of the pelvis impossible to replicate. It also showed the left arm of the odalisque is shorter than the right. The study concluded that the figure was longer by five instead of two or three vertebrae and that the excess affected the lengths of the pelvis and lower back instead of merely the lumbar region.”
Wikipedia quotes Kenneth Clark as saying that “The Source” has been described as “the most beautiful figure in French painting.”
Which part of: ‘it’s ART’ do they not understand, I wonder. 🤣 She may be reptilian for all I care, it’s a gorgeous painting! Still, fun reading all this trivia. …and I agree with K.C. ! 😉
You said it well: “She may be reptilian for all I care….” To be fair, the Wikipedia article also noted that Ingres’ “expressive distortions of form and space made him an important precursor of modern art, influencing Picasso, Matisse and other modernists.
😉 Wikipedia is a great source of information [which I also use a lot]. But the best art critic in the world won’t guide me how to ‘look’ at a painting. They can point out some things that otherwise the viewer wouldn’t know but that’s as far as they’ll go. If you ask 1000 people how they see and what they feel from a painting, you’ll hear 1000 different descriptions! 😉
Wonderful post Marina — I love artist biographies, I will reblog. Kindest regards.
Thank you very much!!!! So glad you enjoyed it!
Have a lovely Sunday! 🙂
Some fine, photorealistic portraits there!
Happy Sunday, Marina.
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Yes, they are… I love the fabrics details.
Happy Sunday and week ahead, my friend!
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I was struck by the photograph quality of the fabric details as well.
Through his excellent technique he makes me fall in love with all these details.
I know just what you mean!
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Le gasp! His portraits are photos from the past.
That is the most intriguing portrait I’ve ever seen of Napoleon I.
Now, I know he did not go to the art supply store, or did he?
How did they get canvases, paint & brushes? Hmm,1800’s… there may have been a shoppe.
You have shown older here. Did they make their own paint?
Meanwhile, I’m drawing Art Gowns. (Did you see the email with Daffodil Marina?)
The music is wonderful, thank you!
Love pets for Hera!!!
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I did – I did and WOW – WOW [Le Grande Gasp!!!!!!]
On Ingres… I was blown away by the details of the fabrics and gowns of the portraits. Those beautiful creases and the gown of Mme. Moitessier, Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc, Napoleon [!!!!!], Baronne de Rothschild [for some reason it keeps showing fuzzy and my file is crystal clear…. I wonder why] and generally all the fabrics [drapes, etc]
Painters used to make their own colors hence some of the colors we use today are named by the painter who created them but I’m not sure when painters stopped producing their own pigments from various chemicals… very unhealthy too [http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/artist-paints/colour-pigments.htm]
So glad you enjoyed it! xoxoxoxoxoxo
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I thought the portait of Napoleon had a mocking quality to it.
Ahhh, interesting!
Whatever his intentions, I’m in love with the textures of that cloak!!!! 😉
YES! xoxoxo
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Maybe… if not, he wouldn’t be the first to fall for him. Beethoven was another one! 😉
I’m blown away by the beauty of this artwork, such a brilliant artist. I enjoyed reading about him and seeing his amazing painting, stay safe dear one! xoxoxo
So happy you enjoyed his work. I adore the detail of the ladies fabrics / gowns!
You too, my sweet friend! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
xoxoxo 💞
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