Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (August 29, 1780 – January 14, 1867) was a French painter. His name is pronounced {{IPA|/ɛ̃gʀ/}} in French (i.e. final -es is not pronounced).

Work

It is to be noted that the Saint Symphorien exhibited in 1834 closes the list of the works on which his reputation will chiefly rest; for The spring, which at first sight seems to be an exception, was painted, all but the 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.

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Touch was not, indeed, at any time a means of expression on which Ingres seriously calculated; his constant employment of local tint, in mass but faintly modelled in 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 art wholly based on form and line. Except in his Sistine Chapel, and one or two slighter pieces, Ingres kept himself free from any preoccupation as to depth and force of colour and tone; driven, probably by the excesses of the Romantic movement into an attitude of stricter protest. "Ce que l'on sait," he would repeat, "il faut le savoir l'épée à la main." ("This is what I know: one must know the sword in the hand.") 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 witness, by the very master (Raphael) whom he most deeply reverenced. Thus it came to pass that in subjects of one or two figures Ingres showed to the greatest advantage: in Oedipus, in the Girl after bathing, the Odalisque and The spring, subjects only animated by the consciousness of perfect physical well-being, we find Ingres at his best. One hesitates to put Roger and Angelique upon this list, for though the 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 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 fancy cannot be seen.

Related Topics:
Romantic - Raphael - Hippogriff

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