The French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres once said, “As long as you do not
hold a balance between seeing things and your execution, you will do nothing that is really
good.” He was born in the late 18th century in France where he attended a christian school
growing up. Until there was an abolition of religious orders in 1792 during the French
revolution. Ingres then began studying at a fine arts academy and then studied under Jacque
Louis David. Later on he developed his own personal style by combining elements of mannerism and medieval art to provide illusionistic proportions of human figures. In the paintings Le Petite Baigneuse (Interior of Harem)(1828) and Le Bain Turc (The Turkish Bath)(1852-1867) located in the Louvre we can see an example of these women being depicted with abnormal proportions. Their backs appear to be elongated and their necks are more prominently plump. Ingres was criticized at first with one stating that his paintings were “gothic”. However, he kept painting in his style and is now associated with the Troubadour style art movement as well as the Orientalist art movement. His paintings often depict scenes from history and literature or the ideal fantasized woman nude. He has been criticized along with artists for his depiction of women serving as objects representing lust and eroticism. His ideals matched that of the time period and it is imperative that we recognize this quality yet, there is no doubt that he was an influential painter despite his controversial subject matters.
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