Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (born 1780) was born in Montauban, France. Although Ingres considered himself a painter of history like Jacques-Louis David and Nicolas Pousin, by the time his life ended it was his portraits both drawn and painted, that formed part of his greatest legacy. He was a neoclassical painter who was one of the most respected painters of his time. Ingres was a man profoundly respectful of the past. He is famous for his female nudes and society portraits. Ingres is known for his mythological studies as well as portraiture work and evocative nudes - "Madame Rivière". Ingres assumed the role of a guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style represented by Eugene Delacroix, his nemesis. Ingres’ examples were the great masters which flourished in that century of glorious memory when Raphael set the incontestable and eternal bounds of the sublime in art. Ingres believed he was a conservator of good doctrine rather than an innovator.
Today his work, just like those of other neoclassical artists, is considered to be embodying the Romantic spirit of his time. Ingres’ expressive distortions of space and form make him an important precursor of modern art. Ingres was also an art teacher who was loved by his students like Theodore Chasseriau. He became the head of the École des Beaux-Arts and later the head of Rome's French Academy. Ingres loved art and music and won prizes in several disciplines, such as "figure and antique", life studies and composition. He developed his musical talent under the tutelage of the violinist Lejeune, and he played violin from the ages of 13 to 16 in the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse.
