Editing Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (section)

==In Paris (1797–1806)==
[[File:Ingres - estudo de nu - 1801.jpg|thumb|upright|''Male Torso'' (1800), Montauban, Musée Ingres]]
In March 1797, the Academy awarded Ingres first prize in drawing, and in August he traveled to [[Paris]] to study in the studio of [[Jacques-Louis David]], France's—and Europe's—leading painter during the revolutionary period, in whose studio he remained for four years. Ingres followed his master's neoclassical example.<ref>Tinterow, Conisbee et al. 1999, p. 31.</ref> In 1797 David was working on his enormous masterpiece, ''[[The Intervention of the Sabine Women]]'', and was gradually modifying his style away from Roman models of rigorous realism to the ideals of purity, virtue and simplicity in Greek art.{{Sfn|Jover|2005|page=20}} 

One of the other students of David, [[Étienne-Jean Delécluze]], who later became an art critic, described Ingres as a student: <blockquote>He was distinguished not just by the candor of his character and his disposition to work alone ... he was one of the most studious ... he took little part in the all the turbulent follies around him, and he studied with more perseverance than most of his co-disciples ... All of the qualities which characterize today the talent of this artist, the finesse of contour, the true and profound sentiment of the form, and a modeling with extraordinary correctness and firmness, could already be seen in his early studies. While several of his comrades and David himself signaled a tendency toward exaggeration in his studies, everyone was struck by his grand compositions and recognized his talent.<ref>Delécluze, Étienne-Jean, ''Louis David, son école et son temps'' (1863).</ref></blockquote> He was admitted to the painting department of the [[École des Beaux-Arts]] in October 1799. In 1800 and 1801, he won the grand prize for figure painting for his paintings of male torsos.{{Sfn|Jover|2005|page=24}} 

In 1800 and 1801, he competed for the Prix de Rome, the highest prize of the Academy, which entitled the winner to four years of residence at the French Academy in Rome. He came in second in his first attempt, but in 1801 he took the top prize with ''[[The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles]]''. The figures of the envoys, in the right of the painting, are muscular and solid as statues, in the style taught by David, but the two main figures on the left, Achilles and Patroclus, are mobile, vivid and graceful, like figures in a delicate bas-relief.{{Sfn| Jover|2005|page=25}}
[[File:The Envoys of Agamemnon by Ingres.jpg|thumb|left|''[[The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles|The Envoys of Agamemnon]]'', 1801, oil on canvas, École des Beaux Arts, Paris]]
His residence in Rome was postponed until 1806 due to shortage of state funds. In the meantime he worked in Paris alongside several other students of David in a studio provided by the state, and further developed a style that emphasized purity of contour. He found inspiration in the works of Raphael, in [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] vase paintings, and in the outline engravings of the English artist [[John Flaxman]].<ref name="Mongan_Naef_xix">Mongan and Naef 1967, p. xix.</ref> His drawings of [[Hermaphrodite]] and the Nymph [[Salmacis]] showed a new stylized ideal of female beauty, which would reappear later in his ''Jupiter et Thetis'' and his famous nudes.{{Sfn|Jover|2005|page=29}}

In 1802 he made his debut at the [[Salon (Paris)|Salon]] with ''Portrait of a Woman'' (the current whereabouts of which is unknown). Between 1804 and 1806 he painted a series of portraits which were striking for their extreme precision, particularly in the richness of their fabrics and tiny details. These included the ''Portrait of Philipbert Riviére'' (1805), ''Portrait of Sabine Rivière'' (1805–06), ''Portrait of Madame Aymon'' (also known as ''La Belle Zélie''; 1806), and ''Portrait of Caroline Rivière'' (1805–06). The female faces were not at all detailed but were softened, and were notable for their large oval eyes and delicate flesh colours and their rather dreamlike expressions. His portraits typically had simple backgrounds of solid dark or light colour, or of sky. These were the beginning of a series that would make him among the most celebrated portrait artists of the 19th century.{{Sfn|Jover|2005|pages=36–51}}

As Ingres waited to depart to Rome, his friend [[Lorenzo Bartolini]] introduced him to Italian Renaissance paintings, particularly the works of [[Bronzino]] and [[Pontormo]], which Napoleon had brought back from his campaign in Italy and placed in the [[Louvre]]. Ingres assimilated their clarity and monumentality into his own portrait style. In the Louvre were also masterpieces of Flemish art, including the ''[[Ghent Altarpiece]]'' by [[Jan van Eyck]], which the French army had seized during its conquest of Flanders. The precision of Renaissance Flemish art became part of Ingres's style.{{Sfn|Jover|2005|page=36}} Ingres's stylistic eclecticism represented a new tendency in art. The Louvre, newly filled with booty seized by Napoleon in his campaigns in Italy and the [[Low Countries]], provided French artists of the early 19th century with an unprecedented opportunity to study, compare, and copy masterworks from antiquity and from the entire history of European painting.<ref>Tinterow, Conisbee et al. 1999, p. 27.</ref> As art historian Marjorie Cohn has written: "At the time, art history as a scholarly enquiry was brand-new. Artists and critics outdid each other in their attempts to identify, interpret, and exploit what they were just beginning to perceive as historical stylistic developments."<ref name="Condon et al. 1983, p. 13">Condon et al. 1983, p. 13.</ref> From the beginning of his career, Ingres freely borrowed from earlier art, adopting the historical style appropriate to his subject, and was consequently accused by critics of plundering the past.<ref name="Condon et al. 1983, p. 13"/>

[[File:Ingres, Napoleon on his Imperial throne.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne]]'', 1806, oil on canvas, 260 x 163 cm, [[Musée de l'Armée]], Paris]]

In 1803 he received a prestigious commission, being one of five artists selected (along with [[Jean-Baptiste Greuze]], [[Robert Lefèvre]], Charles Meynier, and [[Marie-Guillemine Benoist]]) to paint full-length portraits of [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon Bonaparte]] as [[First Consul]]. These were to be distributed to the prefectural towns of [[Liège]], [[Antwerp]], [[Dunkerque]], [[Brussels]], and [[Ghent]], all of which were newly ceded to France in the 1801 [[Treaty of Lunéville]].<ref>Tinterow, Conisbee et al. 1999, p. 46.</ref> Napoleon is not known to have granted the artists a sitting, and Ingres's meticulously painted portrait of ''[[Bonaparte, First Consul]]'' appears to be modelled on an image of Napoleon painted by [[Antoine-Jean Gros]] in 1802.<ref>Tinterow, Conisbee et al. 1999, p. 48.</ref>

[[File:Medallion portrait of Julie Forestier 1.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''Medallion portrait of Julie Forestier'', 1806, by Ingres]]

In the summer of 1806, Ingres became engaged to [[Marie-Anne-Julie Forestier]], a painter and musician, before leaving for [[Rome]] in September. Although he had hoped to stay in Paris long enough to witness the opening of that year's Salon, in which he was to display several works, he reluctantly left for Italy just days before the opening.<ref>Cohn and Siegfried 1980, p. 22.</ref>

Ingres painted a new portrait of Napoleon for presentation at the [[Salon of 1806]], this one showing Napoleon on the Imperial Throne for his coronation. This painting was entirely different from his earlier portrait of Napoleon as First Consul; it concentrated almost entirely on the lavish imperial costume that Napoleon had chosen to wear, and the symbols of power he held. The scepter of [[Charles V of France|Charles V]], the sword of [[Charlemagne]] the rich fabrics, furs and capes, crown of gold leaves, golden chains and emblems were all presented in extremely precise detail; the Emperor's face and hands were almost lost in the majestic costume.{{Sfn|Jover|2005|pages=48–51}}

At the Salon, his paintings—''Self-Portrait'', portraits of the Rivière family, and ''[[Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne]]''—received a very chilly reception.<ref>Tinterow, Conisbee et al. 1999, p. 68.</ref> David delivered a severe judgement,<ref name="Arikha 1986, p. 103"/> and the critics were hostile. [[Pierre-Jean-Baptiste Chaussard|Chaussard]] (''Le Pausanias Français'', 1806) praised "the fineness of Ingres's brushwork and the finish", but condemned Ingres's style as gothic and asked: <blockquote>How, with so much talent, a line so flawless, an attention to detail so thorough, has M. Ingres succeeded in painting a bad picture? The answer is that he wanted to do something singular, something extraordinary&nbsp;... M. Ingres's intention is nothing less than to make art regress by four centuries, to carry us back to its infancy, to revive the manner of [[Jan van Eyck|Jean de Bruges]].<ref>Quoted and translated in Tinterow, Conisbee et al. 1999, p. 70.</ref></blockquote>