1780 -1867 · Montauban, Paris and Rome

Sovereign line, reinvented anatomy and portraits of almost tactile precision make Ingres one of the great French masters of the 19th century.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was born in Montauban in 1780 into a family of artists and artisans. He studied in Toulouse before entering Paris in 1797, in the studio of Jacques-Louis David. Winner of the Prix de Rome in 1801, he did not reach Italy until 1806 due to political and financial difficulties. Rome became the decisive place of his training: Raphael, Antiquity and Renaissance painting nourished a conception of drawing based on continuous line, clarity of contour and the memory of masters. Napoleon I on the imperial throne, painted in 1806, transformed the sovereign into a frontal icon. The scepter, the hand of justice, the eagles, the mantle and the throne accumulate signs of power, while symmetry suspends almost all action. Ingres nevertheless refuses to remain a simple guardian of neoclassicism. The Grande Odalisque, commissioned in 1814, stretches the back, moves the joints and subordinates the anatomy to the curve. The oriental space is imaginary, constructed by the turban, the fan, the fabrics and a cold sensuality. This choice shows that its famous accuracy is never a mechanical copy of reality: Ingres distorts when a longer line or a purer rhythm serves his idea of beauty. The portrait is the other peak of his work. Louis-François Bertin imposes the power of the model through the hands placed on the knees, the massive bust and the direct gaze. Madame Moitessier, on the contrary, combines floral dress, jewelry, mirror and pose inspired by Antiquity in a surface of spectacular precision. Through clothing, furniture and skin, Ingres made modern society an equivalent of history painting. After years in Rome and Florence, he returned triumphantly to Paris, then directed the French Academy in Rome from 1835 to 1841. He continued until his death in 1867, large compositions, portraits and countless drawings. His influence runs through academics as well as Degas, Picasso and modern artists fascinated by the tension between accuracy and invention. The selection "Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres" notably compares Napoleon I on the imperial throne and La Grande Odalisque. Its reading favors details.

Ingres seems to obey the outline, but he bends it to his desire: the line corrects reality to the point of making visible a beauty that anatomy alone could not produce.