Brief Biography-Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was born in the town of Montauban, South-West France. His father was a sculptor and dabbled in miniature portraits; he began Jean’s tuition before moving to Toulouse to enter him into the Arts Academy. Apart from painting, Jean became an accomplished violinist, which he played all of his life.
In 1796, he went to Paris with a letter of introduction from his school, which gained him entry into the studio of Jacques-Louis David, where he trained alongside Antoine-Jean Gros. He entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1799, and in 1801 he won the Prix de Rome. However, because of the economic climate in France, it was 1806 before he went to Rome. While his works received criticism back in Paris, he had a fruitful career in Rome. He was very impressed by the Italian Masters. Raphael was the foremost influence on him. After his four-year term, he remained in Rome and made a decent living doing portraits of notables; however, the works he sent back to Paris got heavily criticised.
In 1813 he was married through an arrangement with a lady from his hometown whom he had never met; it turned out to be a successful marriage. In 1814 Napoleon was defeated in Italy, Jean’s clientele slowly departed, and his wife became ill. He had to scrape a living by sketching tourists in Rome. It was a painful period for him. His paintings, including the Grande Odalisque, were generally rejected in Paris. He moved to Florence in 1820, where he continued with portraiture. In 1824, he went to Paris with his painting The Vow of Louis XIII, exhibited alongside an out-of-favour Eugène Delacroix. Jean’s art suddenly became a profound success in the salon. He received the Légion d’Honneur and was elected professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1829, later becoming its president. Ingres ran a successful studio during this time, acquiring prestigious commissions. In 1834, however, the salon wrongly rejected a significant commission at the salon, and he departed for Rome once again, where he became a prominent Director of the French Academy.
He returned to Paris in 1841, and by this time, he had gained high esteem. His wife died in 1849, and he remarried in 1852. There always remained animosity between him and Delacroix; however, Ingres proved to be ahead of Delacroix’s esteem as his superior at the Academy. He died in Paris at the age of 86. Many of his works are on view in the Musée Ingres in his hometown of Montauban.