Saturday, March 26, 2011

Back to Ingres

In 1824 after his many years in Italy, Ingres returned to Paris. His Vow of XIII painting was well received and he was a celebrity in the art world. He had begun to lose some of the archaic mannerisms that had been disliked by his critics. He also secured a stream of portrait commissions. The highly finished realism of his portrait of Louis- Francois Bertin (1832) was enormously popular at the salon.

The success of his work from this era brought attention to his previous paintings that had not been well received initially and the won all of the major awards France had to bestow.

Ingres became the premier classicist artist in France who led the defense of classical ideas of art against the rival romanticists. He was a highly regarded teacher and was beloved by his many students. His wife died in 1849 and in 1852 Ingres age seventy one marries Delphine Ramel aged forty three. Evidently this marriage was as successful as his first.

Ingre lived to be eighty six years old and upon his death was buried in Paris's famed Pere Lachaise cemetery. This is the cemetery that contains the grave of Jim Morrison of the Doors.You know, I think that cemetery deserves a post of it's own, Have I got a bizarre story for you, about how Paris moved hundreds of thousands of bodies out of Paris at night for years when it became necessary to relocate their dead, who were so numerous they were even walled up in ordinary houses for lack of a better place to put them.

10 comments:

Tim said...

Next time you're in Paris, take a tour of the Catacombs, both minblowing and inspiring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_catacombs

billspaintingmn said...

The attention Ingres gives to these portraits make me feel as though I've met them.
From there eyes to the fabric, and other details. Amazing stuff.

Is that the cemetary that continues to charge for a plot? I heard that bodys have to go if the rent isn't paid. (No rest for the wealthy)

Richard J. Luschek II said...

For goodness sake Stape, when are you going to use all of the great "scholarly work" done by David Hockney on the subject and Ingres use of lenses to draw accurately? -sarcasm alert.

Lucy said...

What a genius was Ingres! I always thought he portrayed Bertin as an owl.... The clawed hands, the beakish nose, the tufts of hair like feathers. Whether he did or didn't is the artist's secret. The point is, these portraits are not realistic, they are super exaggerations of whatever Ingres felt about his sitters.
It just goes to show, there is a big difference between an accurate realistic portrait and an expressive masterpiece. An artist needs the first before getting to the second.

willek said...

Hmmm. All of these paintings are front lit. Someone said that all of Norman Rockwells work is also lighted from the front. Well, I guess it makes all the front planes the lightest and makes all the side planes into half tone planes. I tried, at my last weekly protrait group to work from the lit side, but just could not bring myself to do it and moved back to my very comfortable 3/4 lighting. Painting is not easy.

Stapleton Kearns said...

Tim;
I want to.
....Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

bill;
Me too.
..............Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Richard;
I don't think Hockney is as much a scholar as and artist.
.......Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Lucy;
That is important the difference between a creative artists and an average portrait without art.
................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Willek;
I like frontlighting. It is not harder to do than other kinds of lighting.
...............Stape