Ingres lived eighteen years in Italy, drawing from pencil portraits enough to wait for commissions. With him, the line decides everything, and anatomy yields when the curve demands it. He took the head of the party of line against that of colour, led by Delacroix, and the quarrel occupied the art world for thirty years. At eighty-two, he was still painting The Turkish Bath.
The story
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was born in Montauban on 29 August 1780. Winner of the grand prize for painting in 1801, he spent five years at the Villa Medici and eighteen in Italy altogether, living on pencil portraits while he waited for commissions.
“The Valpinçon Bather” in 1808, “Jupiter and Thetis” in 1811, “The Grande Odalisque”, “The Turkish Bath” at eighty-two: a body of work in which the line commands everything, and anatomy bends whenever the curve requires it.
He became the head of the party of drawing against the party of colour, whose champion was Delacroix. The quarrel occupied the art world for thirty years; today the two men lie a few Divisions apart.
Baudelaire, who had no love for the doctrine, saw the painter's power and set him beside Courbet — in both, an exactness that overflows the academy.
A senator and a grand officer of the Legion of Honour, he died of pneumonia on 14 January 1867, at eighty-six. His two wives, Madeleine Chapelle and Delphine Ramel, lie with him in Division 23.
The grave
A stele signed by the architect Victor Baltard — the man of the Halles de Paris — topped by a marble bust by Jean-Marie Bonnassieux. The inscription lines up the titles in Roman numerals, “history painter, member of the Institut, senator, Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur”, and ends with a sentence that is not modest: “He lived gloriously, by his character, by his works.” His two wives rest there, Marie Madeleine Chapelle, who died in 1849, and Delphine Ramel, who died in 1887. On the first's inscription, the year of birth is engraved “MLCCLXXXII” — an impossible Roman notation, where MDCCLXXXII was expected.
On site, do not miss
The last line of the epitaph, and on his first wife's inscription the faulty Roman date: MLCCLXXXII.
Visitors' questions
Where is Ingres's grave?
In Division 23, avenue Saint-Morys, fourth row, in the old part of the cemetery. The stele is by the architect Victor Baltard, the man behind Les Halles, and the marble bust by Jean-Marie Bonnassieux.
Eugène DelacroixWhat was the quarrel between line and colour?
The debate that split French painting for thirty years: Ingres stood for line, Delacroix for colour. Today the two party leaders rest a few Divisions apart at Père-Lachaise.
Camille CorotWhat does his epitaph say?
After the list of his titles — history painter, member of the Institut de France, senator, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour — a single sentence: “il vécut glorieusement, par son caractère, par ses œuvres” — he lived gloriously, through his character and through his works.
Thomas CoutureIs there a mistake carved on his grave?
On the inscription for his first wife, Marie Madeleine Chapelle, whose year of birth is given as “MLCCLXXXII” — a sequence that is not valid Roman numerals. It should read MDCCLXXXII, that is, 1782.
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