INGRES, JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE

born Aug. 29, 1780, Montauban, France died Jan. 14, 1867, Paris La Grande Odalisque, oil on canvas by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1814; in the Louvre, painter and icon of cultural conservatism in 19th-century France. Ingres became the leader of the French tradition of Neoclassical painting after the death of Jacques-Louis David. He was also one of the finest portraitists of his century. Ingres's cool, meticulously drawn works were the antithesis of the contemporary Romantic school. His historical paintings display his lifelong obsession with line and contour, while his female nudes [see photograph] reveal a sensuality unique to Neoclassicism. Andrew Carrington Shelton Additional reading The most authoritative account of Ingres's life and career remains the work by Henry Lapauze, Ingres: sa vie & son oeuvre (17801867) d'aprs des documents indits (1911). Georges Vigne, Ingres (1995; originally published in French, 1995), provides an informative, lavishly illustrated biography in English. The principal catalogues are Georges Wildenstein, Ingres (1954), a catalogue-raisonn of the paintings; and Hans Naef, Die Bildniszeichnungen von J.-A.-D. Ingres, 5 vol. (197780), on the portrait drawings. A stimulating critical appraisal is Robert Rosenblum, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1967). Carol Ockman, Ingres's Eroticized Bodies: Retracing the Serpentine Line (1995), presents a provocative critique of the artist's work from a feminist perspective.