Ingres and the Louvre

A great thing about having houseguests is that they know more than you do about some things. My beaufrere (brother-in-law) gave me a private guided tour of the Ingres exhibit at the Louvre. The Louvre did a great job of displaying about 200 of Ingres' works, but with a true artist along for the ride, I heard the real scoop. The display of these work very clearly demonstrated the development of a very skilled artist, but also the diversity of this painter's work. To see the ads, and according to my guide, to hear the history, you would think this guy painted naked women all the time. In fact, he didn't. He painted naked or nearly naked men, dressed women, decked out horses and religious scenes, maidens in distress, and more importantly, Ingres could draw with amazing detail. His eyes were very expressive, even if the rest of the face wasn't. Photo Credit: Musee de Beaux Arts, Nantes

This was an artist who knew from where his commissions would come. I love the contrast between his first portrait of Napoleon (as an advocate general or something) with his later grand portrayal of Napoleon as Emperor of the world, by the looks of it. The studies and sketches really showed the best work. The sketches of the details before starting the painting were so finely detailed that they too are works of art. There was also a really beautiful sketch of a family, that included the father who had recently died and another of two little girls. There was a collection of sketches of Ingres' wife over their long and reportedly devoted marriage. She was always portrayed as kind and beautiful and aging beautifully. And there were nudes. There were nude women sleeping, bathing, dressed women waiting on nude women, women grooming, eating, and just posed.

In particular, there was a very finely detailed scene of about 100 naked women in a public bath. Apparently, it was very shocking at its time and was not very well received. Si Leis would still have a fit over that one, and there it is, in the Louvre, for women, children and really anyone to see. Imagine that.