The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

August 29, 2014

Auigust 29, 1780

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres(August 29,  1780 to January 14, 1867) saw himself as a preserver of artistic tradition, rather than an innovator. This may reflect a reaction to the chaos of revolutionary France. This need for security over innovation was a sentiment shared by many, for Ingres was early recognized as an artist,  and his paintings show a  precision of line and a color that was vivid but clearly delineated in all aspects of the canvas. Here is his painting of Napoleon, (1806), another who benefited from the insecurities of a populace exhausted by change. In fact Napoleon's royal emblem was the Bourbon fleur-de-lis, just turned upside down.  Very reassuring -- just a tiny bit of change.


According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the art of Ingres was finally valued again,  after the Bourbon restoration because:


... Ingres [was seen] as a standard-bearer of cultural conservatism. Critics saw that he was defending the tenets of the waning tradition of French academic Classicism: namely, an unwavering faith in the authority of the ancients, an insistence upon the superiority of drawing over colour, and a commitment to the idealization as opposed to the mere replication of nature....

This return to critical acclaim happened for Ingres when
The artist, who moved from Rome to Florence in 1820, adopted a more conventional Classicizing style based directly on the example of his hero, Raphael, in "Christ Giving the Keys to Saint Peter" (1820), and then again in "The Vow of Louis XIII" (1824), a blatant piece of pro-Bourbon propaganda celebrating the union of church and state. This picture was a spectacular success at the 1824 Salon, earning Ingres his first critical accolades as well as election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Thus, in the span of a single exhibition, he went from being one of the most vilified artists in France to one of the most celebrated.

Still his career was not without drama, for, later, when Ingres was

.... Deeply wounded by the lack of universal approbation, [for a particular painting] the notoriously hypersensitive artist announced that he intended never again to exhibit at the Salon. ....

It is ironic that, given his pretensions as a history painter, Ingres’s major commissions during his later years continued to be in the genre of portraiture. By the mid-1840s he was the most sought-after society portraitist in Paris. Ingres was particularly adept at capturing the grace and splendour—as well as the sheer ostentation—of the feminine elite. Among his most notable sitters were the Comtesse d’Haussonville (1845), the Baronne de Rothschild (1848), the Princesse de Broglie (1853), and Mme Inès Moitessier, the renowned beauty whom he painted twice (1851 and 1856, respectively).

......[Ingres was finally elevated] to the rank of grand officer of the Legion of Honour; he was the first literary or artistic figure to receive this lofty title. In 1862 Ingres also became one of the first professional painters to be appointed to the Senate....

A concluding assessment of Ingres' importance is provided by the same Britannica article we have already quoted a lot from:

While a few artists of the late 19th century—most notably Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir—derived inspiration directly from Ingres’s example, it was only in the early years of the 20th century that he came to be recognized as one of the major figures of early modern art. The linear lyricism as well as the spatial and anatomical adventurousness of his work were touchstones for giants of the early 20th-century avant-garde such as Pablo Picassoand Henri Matisse. While Ingres later became the subject of more mocking, ironic tributes by Surrealist and Post-Modernist artists, the popularity of major exhibitions of his work and the ongoing scholarly fascination with his oeuvre continue to secure his reputation as one of the greatest and most compelling masters of the 19th century.
....When Ingres died, he bequeathed the contents of his studio to Montauban, his native city. In addition to about 4,000 drawings (the studies, sketches, and working drawings of a lifetime), this bequest included several of his own paintings, the works in his private collection, and his reference library. All of this is now housed in the Ingres Museum at Montauban. 

Montauban is where to find this drawing of Ingres' cat, Biquette, another seated  monarch.


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