Portrait of Monsieur Bertin
Portrait of Monsieur Bertin is an 1832 oil on canvas painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It depicts Louis-François Bertin, the French writer, art collector and director of the pro-royalist Journal des débats. Ingres’ portrait of Bertin was a critical and popular success, but the sitter was a private person. It has been on permanent display at the Musée du Louvre since 1897.
About Portrait of Monsieur Bertin in brief
Portrait of Monsieur Bertin is an 1832 oil on canvas painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It depicts Louis-François Bertin, the French writer, art collector and director of the pro-royalist Journal des débats. Ingres’ portrait of Bertin was a critical and popular success, but the sitter was a private person. It has been on permanent display at the Musée du Louvre since 1897. It was praised at the Paris Salon of 1833, and has been influential to both academic painters such as Léon Bonnat and later modernists including Pablo Picasso and Félix Vallotton. The portrait of Armand evidences his physical resemblance to his father. Although his family worried about caricature and disapproved, it became widely known and sealed the artist’s reputation. It is an unflinchingly realistic depiction of ageing and emphasises the furrowed skin and thinning hair of an overweight man who yet maintains his resolve and determination. The painting had a prolonged genesis. Ingres agonised over the pose and made several preparatory sketches. The final work faithfully captures the sitters character, conveying both a restless energy and imposing bulk. It was painted during his first period of success; having achieved acclaim as a history painter, he accepted portrait commissions with reluctance, regarding them as a distraction from more important work. He wrote in 1847 that portraits are so difficult to get that they are difficult to prevent him getting on with the greater task of painting them.
He dismissed portraits as lacking in grandeur and grandeur of his early career. From 1824 to 1847, Ingres painted few portraits and for the next decade he painted few history paintings for large commissions for commissions for large paintings. The Vow of Louis XIII at 1824 marked an abrupt change in his fortunes: he received a series of commissions for portraits for large works of art. He painted portraits of Victor Hugo, his mistress Juliette Drouet, Hector Berlioz, and later Franz Liszt and Charles Gounod. In 1832 he painted a portrait of his friend and friend’s son Armand, who was 66 in 1832, the year of the portrait. He was a leader of the French upper class and a supporter of Louis Philippe and the Bourbon Restoration. He is physically imposing and self-assured, but his real-life personality shines through – warm, wry and engaging to those who had earned his trust. He is a personification of the commercially minded leaders of the liberal reign of LouisPhilippe I. Bertin entertained guests such as Victor Hugo and Victor Hugo. He supported the July Monarchy and the Le Moniteur Universel until 1823, when he had come to criticize absolutism. The Journal supported contemporary art, and Bert in was a patron, collector and cultivator of writers, painters and other artists.
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