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Glamour of the day

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painted the fashion in his time in portraits that were striking for their sensuality and contour

ALL-COLOUR Madame d'Haussonville; Most Ingres's pictures reveal a dichotomy — of the neo-classicism clashing with a freer romanticism

Was he a neo-classicist? Romantic? Or gothic? Or was he in Baudelaire's words a "fashionable milliner"? Throughout his life, and even to date, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres had to deal with critics, rivals and peers struggling to formulate him in a phrase.

Born in Montauban in France on August 29, 1780, Ingres's father was a painter, musician and sculptor who trained his son in all three disciplines. He showed early promise as a musician with a performance at Toulouse being much appreciated.

Art school

He entered the Royal Academy of Arts in Toulouse in 1796 where he studied art, landscape painting and sculpture. He went to Paris in 1796 to study under that most influential of neo-classicists, Jacques-Louis David.

He wholeheartedly adopted David's precepts of antiquity being the only thing that mattered, but that belief contradicted Ingres' sensitivity to realism. Hence all his pictures reveal this dichotomy -- of the neo-classicism clashing with a freer romanticism. Ingres parted ways with David on ideological grounds.

The accolades

He won the Grand Prix in 1801 but due to the state of the French economy, he did not go to Rome till 1807. In the interim, he began doing portraits, which were striking for their sensuality and contour. During his first years in Rome, he continued to do portraits and also started work on bathers - which went to become one of his favourite themes. In 1820 he moved to Florence where he stayed till 1824 when he returned in triumph to Paris with his Vow of Louis XIII. He was set up as the leader of the opposition to the new Romantic Movement led by Delacroix.

He stayed in Paris for the next ten years but returned to Rome as the director of the French School when his The Martyrdom of St. Symphorian was badly received. A model administrator and teacher, Ingres retained his post for seven years. He returned to France in 1841 and stayed there till his death on January 14, 1867, painting till the very end.

He married in 1813 and his wife was a great emotional support to him. Her death in 1849 was a devastating blow. It is from Ingres' portraits, that one gets to marvel at his detailing of fashion of the time. Delacroix, from the rival romantic school, recognised in Ingres' work the knowledge of the drape and fall of fabric and the feel for adornment.

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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