“ In sacrificing color to line, the charm of light to the eloquence of form, the pleasure of the eye to the enjoyment of the mind, the sensual delight of the palette to the intellectual enjoyment of style, Ingres realized a great ideal, founded as much, perhaps, upon the absence of certain qualities as upon the triumphant presence of certain others. His temperament, so restrained in his color, is revealed in his nervous, vigorous drawing. It is evident from the valuable studies preserved in the Museum of Montauban what tremendous struggles he underwent when he took his pencil in hand. ”

“ These drawings show that "Father Ingres" possessed not only a highly cultivated intelligence and iron strength of will, not only the genius of industry, but also a heart, a genuine, warm, and fine-feeling heart; that he was in his innermost being by no means the cold academician, the stiff doctrinaire, which he appears to be in his large pictures, and which his opposition to the romantic school made of him. Here we have a charmer such as the Primitives were, a charmer such as the Impressionists are, like Massys and Manet, like Dürer and Degas, like all who have looked nature in the face. ”

“ The mythical hero is here represented, not as David would have represented him, cold and lifeless as a statue, but as a man endowed with the beauty of a Greek athlete rather than a god, and although his body is drawn and modeled with such academic exactitude that its very perfection is in itself somewhat wearisome, yet when compared with the creations of the painter of the Horatii and the Sabines, it can readily be seen why Ingres, pure classicist though he be, should have been regarded in his own day as a revolutionary. ”

“ In these pieces an artistic eye which was now inexorable, now tender and full of fancy, has looked on nature, and, in flowing pencil-strokes, has caught with spirit and with the certain touch of direct feeling the real fulness of life in what he saw. ”

“ Symphorien' stood half way between the cold idealism of the classicists and the brutal realism of the romanticists. It is but just to say, however, that in his teaching Ingres was wholly one-sided, thinking no doubt that to gain a little, much must be demanded. In teaching that "drawing is everything, that all may be expressed by line, even smoke," he tended towards painting without relief, devoid of all planes. By dint of preaching austerity of tone and training his pupils to beware of colorists, he veiled his whole school in gray. ”

“ To animate painting by qualities purely sensual, to make a lavish display of the gorgeous splendor of brilliant stuffs, rich brocades and velvets, and gold and silver plate, to paint in glowing rosy hues and amid voluptuous surroundings the plumpness of naked flesh, aroused his indignation and his repugnance as if such art were a desecration. ”

“ Such was unquestionably the harmful side of Ingres' influence. But, on the other hand, it was he who taught, by his works even more than by his words, that nature is idealized by freeing her from all unimportant details, by selecting only her significant traits; that in order not to petrify forms by generalizing them, we must simplify types by individual characteristics taken directly from life; that drawing, which appeals to the heart, is superior to color, which pleases the eye; that nude figures are more beautiful than clothed; that drapery is more artistic than costume ”

“ In these paintings, cast as it were in bronze, there is something that comes from the fresh original source of all art; they have that vein of realism by which the vigorous idealism of Raphael is distinguished from the conventional idealism of a professor of historical painting. Here one finds real treasures, creations of remarkable vital power, and in admirable taste. They show that Ingres, apparently so systematic, had a profound love for living nature, and they insure the immortality of his name. ”

“ He was, however, so firmly convinced that his methods were the true ones—that for an attainment of the highest style an artist must turn to nature, and that color and effect should be wholly subordinate to beauty of line—that, even when sore pressed and in the utmost need, he never deviated from his path in order to cater to popular prejudice and prevailing taste. ”

“ He saw that in a generalization of form, in an adoption of the type of statues, of the Greek profile, and of sculpturesque draperies, a cold and conventional quality had been imparted to the painting of his former co-disciples. Struck by what was natural, interesting, and essentially naïve in the work of the Italian artists of the fifteenth century, he felt that true style was only to be obtained from a profound study of nature, which alone produces an endless variety of forms ”

“ The story is told of a gentleman who one day knocked at the door of his modest studio in Rome, and when Ingres himself appeared, asked timidly, "Does the artist live here who draws portraits in lead-pencil?" "No, sir," was the angry reply; "he who lives here is a painter," and the door was slammed in the face of the astonished visitor. Yet that he did appreciate their artistic excellence is clear from the fact that when in 1855 it was proposed to hang a row of these drawings below the paintings in his exhibition of that year, he objected. "No," he said, "people would look only at them." ”

“ Ingres' work gained steadily in strength and vigor, and his individuality developed rapidly. Departing from the cold formalism of David, he turned to nature for his inspiration and gave a greater semblance of life to his figures than was in strict accordance with the code of the classicists. 'Œdipus and the Sphinx,' the first work sent by him from Rome to Paris, gave evidence that the young pensioner of the French Academy was already in possession of his powers, and that however severely he might be criticized for the singularity of his works, he was undoubtedly some one to be counted with. ”

“ From these two banes of art Ingres delivered painting in France, thereby rendering it an inestimable service. While giving satisfaction to the romanticists in recognizing that their reaction was to some extent justifiable, he perceived at the same time, and just as clearly, that romanticism was a return to the decadence. Indeed, since it had burst into being, only those painters were admired who, essentially imitators, were called in Italy naturalisti. ”

“ Each number of Masters in Music, complete in itself, presents a comprehensive summary of the life and achievement of one of the great musicians of the world, with 32 pages of music, those compositions being selected which, in the opinion of competent judges, best manifest the composer's genius. ”

“ It was at this period that Ingres, in order to earn money enough for their daily bread, executed for slight remuneration many of those marvelous little portraits in lead-pencil (see plates iii, iv, and v) which are so exquisite in touch, so perfect in their purity of line, that they place him on a level with the most consummate draftsmen of all times. ”

“ His studio was thronged with pupils as David's once had been—the two Flandrins, Amaury-Duval, Chassériau, Lehmann, Pichon, and the brothers Balze were among the number—and with authority only less despotic than that of his former master, he ruled the band of young artists who regarded him with such admiration and reverence that they brooked no adverse criticism of him whom they felt to be the deliverer from the bondage of the severe classicism of David, and, at the same time, the opponent of that romantic reaction which was daily growing in power under the leadership of Eugène Delacroix. ”

“ The violent reaction of the romanticists against the too-sculptural tendencies of David led, as all reactions do lead, to another extreme. Arriving in France, as he did after his sojourn in Italy, in the midst of the fray, Ingres saw with astonishing clearness in what respects the school of David had erred, and also what justice there was at bottom in the revolt of the romanticists. ”

“ Deeming music to be more remunerative than painting, his parents wished him to devote himself to it professionally. This did not, however, prevent their sending him to the painter Vigan, in Toulouse, for instruction in drawing, and under his guidance Ingres followed the course prescribed by the Academy of that city, in which Vigan was a professor. Later he entered the studio of Roques, a painter who had been associated in Rome with Vien and David, but who, while adhering to their doctrines, had devoted much time to copying the works of the great Italians of the Renaissance. ”

“ No great draftsman, he declared, could ever fail to find the color that would best suit the character of his drawing. And again, he said, "I shall write over the door of my studio, 'School of Drawing,' and I shall make painters."...
It has been said of Ingres that he was a Greek who had strayed from antiquity into our own times. We know, however, that nature does not produce geniuses at haphazard, but that every great creator expresses the thoughts, [Pg 34] ideas, and aspirations of his time. Ingres was no exception to this law. ”

“ In this he was more of a painter than David; he reformed the reform of his master.
Ingres, then, was the first to have a conception of actual truth; the first to [Pg 30] know that in art the ideal is the quintessence of the real; that style should be derived not from erudition, but from life; that it may be acquired from the most commonplace models; that it must be human.... ”

“ We have heard eminent artists, who in other respects admired Ingres, deplore the influence he exercised upon the French school of painting by reason of the despotic nature of his teaching and the fact that his eccentric sayings, regarded as they were as oracular, unfortunately carried with them in the eyes of his prejudiced followers all the weight of serious opinions. ”

“ The family group reproduced in plate V, and now in the Bonnat Collection at Bayonne, is one of the finest examples of Ingres' work in pencil. It was drawn in Rome in 1818, and represents Monsieur Stamaty, consul at Cività Vecchia, with his wife and children. "The characterization," writes [Pg 38] M. Galichon, "is delicately and accurately given. Each person bears the stamp of his or her own individuality and is strikingly true to life. In short, Ingres has here produced a masterpiece." ”

“ Each little detail of costume, each fold of material, all the differences in texture—everything is given its own special character; everything is perceptible, tangible, so to speak. Science of draftsmanship, eloquence of line, could not possibly be carried farther. ”

“ Drawing and Painting from "life." Separate classes for men and women. Portraiture, Still-life, Flower-painting, Water-color, Pastel, Composition, Decorative Design and Painting, Practical Design for Textiles, Illustration, Pen, Wash, Gouache, Poster, and Book-cover designing. ”

“ Upon its completion 'La Source' was exhibited in Paris, and later in London. Everywhere it aroused feelings of enthusiastic admiration. The hypercritical, to be sure, found fault with the drawing of the legs, which, repainted by the artist when the picture was finished and the model no longer before him, are not carried so far as is the upper part of the body. But on the whole even those who most strenuously opposed Ingres' methods acknowledged its beauty and excellence.
"It is difficult to imagine," writes Mr. ”

“ In 1862, when over eighty, he completed a large canvas, commissioned many years before by Queen Marie Amélie, wife of Louis Philippe. This work, representing 'Christ among the Doctors,' is now in the Museum of Montauban, to which the artist bequeathed it at his death, together with his painting of 'Ossian's Dream,' a collection of his drawings and studies, as well as marbles, bronzes, medals, vases, pictures, books and engravings, his favorite pieces of furniture, his easel, palette, brushes, and his famous violin on which almost to the last he played with unusual skill. ”

“ The old Greek legend is here portrayed of Œdipus explaining the riddle of the Sphinx, whereby he delivered Thebes from the cruelties of that monster who had mercilessly destroyed every man who had failed to solve her riddle. Œdipus has entered the cave in which the Sphinx is seated. ”

“ It is 71⁄4 x 93⁄4, and will be appreciated by every one interested in Greek architecture. We had one hundred extra reproductions made and offer them to Masters in Art subscribers for 50 cents each, postpaid. The above illustration gives no idea of the fine color effect of the print, which the artist has approved as being a perfect reproduction of the original painting. We cannot too strongly recommend our readers to secure a print for framing. ”

“ With one foot placed upon a rock and his elbow resting on his knee, he gazes intently in her face as he explains that a being with four feet, two feet, and three feet is [Pg 36] man, who, in infancy, crawls upon all fours, in manhood stands erect upon two feet, and in old age supports his tottering legs with a staff. ”

“ Highland Linen is made entirely from the new, clean "cuttings" of sheeting factories of this and foreign countries—not from rags. While this choice stock primarily makes for quality, the knowledge of its use makes impossible any unpleasant associations—something that all women of refinement appreciate. ”

“ J. Momméja; Le portrait de Madame Destouches—Die Kunst, 1901: H. von Tschudi; Die Jahrhundert-Ausstellung der französischen Kunst—McClure's Magazine, 1896: W. H. Low; A Century of Painting—MacMillan's Magazine, 1871: F. Wedmore; Ingres—Revue de Paris, 1896: L. Mabilleau; Les cahiers d'Ingres au Musée de Montauban—Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, 1867: J. Meyer; Ingres.
Fashions in stationery are as pronounced and as ever-changing as fashions in dress. Women of taste are as particular about one as the other. ”