If in those lady portraits of Ingres, lines were subject to the colors he despised in a way, then in The Portrait of the Chouan Rochejaquelin, the stronger component was not the color, but the sketch deserving more thought. Facing the real figure, the thick and strict lines extended his portrait art to a more declarative world.
The Portrait Of The Chouan Rochejaquelin
The Portrait Of The Chouan Rochejaquelin was made in 1832. Before making this painting, Ingres had painted sketches with a variety of postures for the editor and the founder of Journaldes Debats—Louis Francois Belden. Until the official painting of Belden's portrait, the latter was already 66 years old. The painter used simple colors and the background to depict this energetic businessman in order to strengthen his image expression: he sat in the chair with fat body, extraordinary bearing and a pair of sharp eyes, wearing black clothes. The corners of the mouth were open with a hard smile. The cool-headed hair old man suddenly grasped the viewer's attention, making people feel in good out of a bandbox.
The critics Gautier praised this painting "physiological portrait, the portrait of morality ... is the era of discovery" after viewing. In short, this was a business discovery of Louis Philip era. Here, the sketch connotation was beyond all the means of modeling. The painter used careful observation to capture the typical characters of the figure. As long as from Belden's strong, and plump hands gripping on his knees, it was enough to make the viewer feel a heartfelt admiration. Ingres was a distinguished portrait painter. At that time because of the vanity of the era, he did not admit that he is a portrait painter. In fact, the French classical painting had outstanding contributions in portraiture, but that style of portraiture generally put the figure painting very noble and elegant. And Ingres also added a level, which was gorgeous. At this point his many noble ladies' portraits were the most obvious however.
Although Ingres refused to admit his portrait, but whenever he was in economic distress, he had to rely on portraits to relieve their plight. Ingres was very good at making pencil portraits and elegant portraits as smooth lines and simple were full of poetic images. His portraits' prices had been raising momentum, because the portraits he painted were too beautiful, not only accurate, and like an indoor piano with a visual appeal which even his enemies could admit. The Portrait Of The Chouan Rochejaquelin was the most brilliant portrait among all his male portraits.
