Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch

Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique,Tinterow, Gary,Conisbee, Philip,Naef, Hans,National Gallery (Great Britain),Metropolitan Museum Of Art (New York, N. Y.)

ISBN 10: 0870998919 / ISBN 13: 9780870998911

Published by Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 9780870998911-2-2

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Portraits by Ingres: Image of an Epoch
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0870998919
• ISBN 13: 9780870998911
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very good

About this title

Synopsis

Published to accompany an international exhibition, this is a study of the portraits by the French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. They were created over the first seven decades of the 19th century and were described by a critic in 1855 as "the most faithful image of our epoch". The book brings together a wide range of original-source materials, including letters, critical reviews, biographical documents and photographs. The major portraits are discussed and reproduced, and more than 100 portrait drawings and many preparatory studies are also included.

Review

Like his contemporaries, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres considered history paintings to be the most exalted form of art, with portraiture a lesser genre. Even during his lifetime, however, tastes were changing, and while icons like his Turkish Bath and Grande Odalisque are still highly regarded, Ingres is most admired today for his innovative and vivid portraits, which transcend time in their physical and psychological truth. Portraits by Ingres--the catalogue of the first comprehensive exhibition in America of Ingres' portraits, organised by the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the National Galleries in Washington, DC, and London--is beautifully produced and impressively researched. And it will now stand as the definitive study of the subject. Eight eminent curators and critics have contributed essays that include the latest scholarship and a wealth of well-chosen comparative material. The sitters and the technical production of the portraits are described with great analytic flair. Perhaps the most famous image is that of Louis-François Bertin, made in 1837--a startling painting then as now for its almost photographic likeness. Contemporary luminaries, from beauties like Madame Moitessier to composers Charles Gounod and Niccolò Paganini, look out at viewers with intelligence and verve; by telling their stories, the catalogue entries provide a delightful history lesson of the Second Empire in France. At the end of Ingres' life in 1867, Leon Legrange summed up the artist's achievement: "What man has painted the 19th century more successfully? Is not Ingres' gallery of portraits ... the most faithful image of an epoch?" --John Stevenson