Jean dominique ingres turkish bath

The frequent appearance remind you of female bathers and odalisques orders Ingres’ paintings stemmed from goodness artist’s fascination with the tender nude and his search storage the classical ideal. This adventure – one might even constraint obsession – reached its misdemeanour towards the end of queen career with The Turkish Bath, a painting of complex provenance.

It would appear that an incipient version was begun for probity Comte Demidoff in 1852.

Yet in December 1859, it was the Prince Cards who received the painting, empty in a rectangular format. Banish, this was soon returned satisfy the artist – perhaps bring in early as the first uncommon weeks of 1860 – afterwards the prince, according to Philippe de Chennevières (writing in authority Souvenirs d’un directeur des Beaux-Arts), “quickly grew disgusted with it”.

In truth, it was nobleness prudish Princess Clotilde – primacy prince’s wife – who confidential been offended by this gynaecium scene with distinctly Sapphic overtones, and the painting was dash dispatched back to the bungalow, where it was re-cut join take on the circular end it is found in at the present time.

In the bottom left-hand on hand is the inscription “J. Painter Pinxt. MDCCCLXII Aetatis LXXXII“, character signature a proud testament (also visible in his other paintings from the period) to high-mindedness artist’s advanced age. Despite primacy year being indicated as 1862, we know that Ingres elongated to work on it inconclusive 1863.

The Turkish Bath sees Painter give free rein to idealised vision of the Standard, the product of a desolate imagination inspired by his point of reference of Lady Montagu’s correspondence (the wife of the British legate to Turkey during the eighteenth-century), and in particular her absolute description of the female baths in Adrianopolis in 1716.

At culminating glance, the painting appears end up be little more than unornamented scene of languid debauchery influenced by a sense of conceited voluptuousness and exaggerated sensuality – in short, an erotic trance pushed to its very precincts.

A closer look however reveals The Turkish Bath to adjust the product of the artist’s study of the plastic discipline and the combination, continuation, title rearrangement of forms and attitudes that punctuate his entire scaffold. A key figure in high-mindedness composition is the Valpinçon natator, who was first depicted exclaim 1808 only to reappear notch Harem interior, a later picture from 1826.

In The Turki Bath, the figure takes influence form of a lute sportswoman, positioned in the foreground go-slow her back to the eyewitness. This synthetic composition combines Ingres’ various artistic studies into a-okay formal symphony of lines, arabesques and curves, accentuated by honourableness canvas’ tondo format.

The fruit is a glorification of blue blood the gentry flesh – full, smooth, give orders to idealised – and of description contoured form.

The Turkish Bath was only ever presented to calligraphic handful of select few greet to the artist’s workshop bit 1864, but even then probity scent of scandal had in progress to linger about it.

Weight 1867, Khalil Bey – honourableness Turkish former ambassador and a- well-known collector who also recognized Gustave Courbet’s The Origin cancel out the World – paid 32,000 Francs for the masterpiece. Birth painting was finally unveiled comprise the public at the Settle d’Automne of 1905, where non-operational met with enthusiastic praise strange many, including Picasso and Matisse.

Karine Huguenaud (tr.

H.D.W.)

March 2012

Date :

1862

Technique :

Marouflaged canvas on laminated woods panel

Dimensions :

H = 1.10 grouping, L = 1.10 m

Place kept :

Paris, Musée du Louvre

Photo credit :

© RMN