INGRES

No.4 - JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES 1780-1867

Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. He always considered himself to be a painter of history following the tradition of Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, but in later years it was as a portrait painter that he was chiefly remembered. 

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THE VIRGIN ADORING THE HOST

1852
40.3 x 30.7 cm

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JOAN OF ARC AT THE CORONATION OF CHARLES VII

1854

Oil on Canvas 240 x 178 cm

This painting was commissioned by the director of the Academie des Belles Artes in Orléans to commemorate Joan of Arc. It shows her at the coronation of Charles VII in Reims Cathedral, victorious and looking up to heaven, which she believed had given France the victory. Ingres began the piece by painting first a nude model and then adding clothes and armour.

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THE TURKISH BATH

1862

108 x 110 cm

This painting was based on an April 1717 written description of a Turkish harem by Lady Mary Montagu in which she mentions having viewed some two hundred nude women.

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PRINCESSE ALBERT DE BROGLIE

1853

Oil on Canvas 106 x 87 cm

This masterpiece was painted toward the end of Ingres' life when his reputation as a portraitist of prominent citizens and aristocrats had been long established. Pauline was stricken with tuberculosis soon after completion of the portrait, leaving five sons and a grieving husband. 

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GRANDE ODALISQUE

1814

91 x 162 cm

La Grande Odalisque (concubine) was commissioned by Napoleon's sister, Queen Caroline Murat of Naples and finished in 1814. Ingres was obviously familiar with paintings like the Dresden Venus by Giorgione and Titian's Venus of Urbino. The actual pose of the model looking back over her shoulder was directly drawn from the 1809 Portrait of Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David.

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 APOTHEOSIS OF HOMER

1827

Oil on Canvas 386 x 515 cm
The painting depicts Homer being crowned by a winged figure personifying Victory or the Universe. Forty-four additional figures pay homage to the poet in a kind of classical confession of faith. 

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MASTERS OF COLOUR WILL BE UPDATED NEXT WEEK ON THURSDAY

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