INGRES, JEAN DomFmorrE AUGUSTE [From Supplement], one of the most eminent painters of the French school, was b. at Montauban, Sept. 15. 1781. A casual view of a copy of one of Raphael's pictures inspired him (so it is said), at the age of ten, with the ambition to become a painter; lie forthwith began to study drawing: and after having been successively the pupil of a M. Rogues and of M. Briant, a landscape painter, he went to Paris in his 17th year, and entered the studio of the great painter David. He remained with David as a pupil for four years. Ile carried off the second prize for painting at the academy of the fine arts in 1800, and in the following year he took the first—an honor which has scarcely, in any other case, been awarded to so young an artist. The picture which gained for him this high distinction was "The Arrival of the Intercessors at the Tent of Achilles." It is now at the school of fine arts, and unquestionably it compares well with many of the works Mach have made him famous. In 1802 he exhibited two portraits, which still rank among his finest works of this class; in 1804 he exhibited a portrait of the first consul, and also a portrait of himself. He again painted Napoleon. now become emperor, in 1806, and the picture was bought for the hopital des invalides. In 1806 he set nut for Rome, where he con tinued to live for many years. He seems to have made a reputation in Italy early, and the commissions he received, including several from the pope, prove that his reputation stood very high. From his countrymen, however, the pictures which he sent to Paris for many years met only with neglect or ridicule. It was at Florence, where he resided from 1820 to 1824, that he painted a picture which at length gained him a party of enthusiastic admirers among the Parisians. The picture was " Le Vceu de Louis XIII." It was exhibited at the Louvre in 1824. and though much decried as well as much admired, it still raised Blares, previously almost unnoticed, at a bound to the chief place among French idealist painters of that time. He received from Louis XVIII. the cross of the legion of honor; and lie was forthwith appointed to succeed baron Deuon as professor at the academy of the fine arts.
Now that he had become the acknowledged head and representative of a school of art, it was natural that his work should be subjected to a searching, criticism. more eager to detect faults than discover merits. He brought upon himself a perfect tempest of discussion in 1827 by a work called " L'Apotheose d'Ilomere," which his admirers declared to be a masterpiece; while the party of his detractors—then. numerous and influential—condemned it as bad in draWing, as poor in coloring, tirid especially as being ungraceful, coarse, and even vulgar in conception. Time French critics seem now to be agreed not only that this was Ingres's finest attempt at epic painting, but that it places him at the head of the French school, and on the level of the greatest painters the world has seen. Many foreign judges, however, arc disposed to hold that the strictures originally made upon it were to a large extent well founded. The discussion which it originated ranged over all the painter's work; it was renewed year after year, and the bitter expressions of some of his critics made such an impression upon Ingres, that from 1832 to 1834 he exhibited nothing but two portraits, and in the latter year embraced an opportunity which offered of again establishing himself in Italy. He became director of
the French academy at Rome, a post which has been held by many distinguished artists, and in which his predecessor was Horace Vernet. This time he remained in Italy for about ten years. During these years he seat many pictures to be exhibited at Paris: these gradually wrought upon the public taste; and when he returned, he found his countrymen unanimous and enthusiastic in admiration of him, and in raptures about his latest composition—"Cherubini [the composer] Inspired by the Muse." Since then it has been treason in Paris to breathe a doubt about the greatness of Ingres. The state, ratified the decision of the public by the liberality with which it bestowed its honors upon him. He was made an officer of the legion of honor in 1841, a commander iu 1845, and grand officer in 1855; he was named a senator on May 25, 1862; and he was soon after appointed a member of the imperial council of public instruction. He became a member of the institute in 1825. Many of his works are now in public collections. At the Paris exhibition of 1855 a room was set apart for his pictures, and one of two grand medals of honor was awarded to him—Eugene Delacroix getting the other. He continued to exercise his art almost to the close of his life; and whatever may be thought of the success of his higher aims, he showed himself to the last what he had always been, the most painstaking, conscientious, and learned of painters. The Nitiad which he painted in 1861 ("La Source "), and which was his solitary contribution to the Loudon exhibition of 1862, is considered the finest of his later works: it was enthusiastically admired, even by those who strongly dissented from the praises lavished by his countrymen upon his more ambitious undertakings. He died, after a short illness, Jan. 14, 1867. During the summer an exhibition of his works took place in Paris, at which almost all his pictures and the cartoons for his works in stained glass and mural paintings were brought together.
"L'Apotheose d'Homere," "Le Martyre de St. Symphonea," "La Naissance de Venus Anadyomene," "La Source," "L'Odalisque," and the portrait of M. Bertin, nine, may be mentioned as among the most characteristic—they are certainly among the most admired—of the works of Ingres. His admirers—who are at present the whole body of his countrymen—recognize in him, among modern painters, the most faithful and persevering and the most successful student of the traditions of the renaissance; they declare his paintings equal in power and fidelity to the best works of the great masters. On the other hand, it is maintained by ins censors or detractors that Ingres was deficient iu invention and in refinement; that all the good timings in his works have been borrowed from ancient pictures; and that, moreover, he copied badly from his models, and often spoiled what he borrowed by his setting of it. Such censures appear greatly exag gerated; but it may be confidently said that Ingres is at present worshiped by his countrymen with a somewhat blind veneration; and that they would do well to expend upon a few really great works the admiration which they lavish upon everything that proceeded from him.