Ingres

The fourth book of the "Drawing Gallery" series is devoted to Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Considered one of the greatest French draughtsmen of all time, the artist left thousands of preparatory drawings for his paintings, including Oedipus and the Sphinx and The Turkish Bath, along with an incomparable series of almost five hundred graphite portraits that have always been deemed the highest expression of his genius. The Louvre collection offers excellent examples of these two aspects of Ingres' graphic activity. The ensemble conserved in the Graphic Arts department of the Louvre, formed by gifts, especially from the artist's friends, but also by an active acquisition policy, boasts several of his most famous drawings, portraits (The Forestier Family, The Stamaty Family, Paganini) and finished compositions that Ingres, always longing for perfection, tirelessly repeated after painting them (Triumph of Romulus over Acron, Ossian's Dream, The Apotheosis of Homer). Cultivating the study of the antique and an unconditional admiration for Raphael, Ingres was able to go beyond this glorious legacy by creating forms that, to quote Baudelaire, naturally attain the ideal. His daring accomplishments were to inspire even the most radical twentieth-century artists. The book his completed by a biographical notice and by the list of the works illustrated, each accompanied by a brief comment.