Ingres by Alexander Joseph Finberg — Read

This portrait of "Madame Riviere" is one of the most characteristic works of Ingres' first period -- the period (1800-1806) of that six years' weary wait to depart for Rome which the bankruptcy of the public exchequer compelled the young artist to submit to. In a list of his works executed immediately before his first portrait of "Bartolini," painted in 1805, Ingres mentions the portraits of "M. Riviere, Madame Riviere, and their ravishing daughter." This fixes the date of these three portraits as about 1804. These are often spoken of by French critics as typical specimens of the artist's "Pre-Raphaelite manner." All three portraits are now in the Louvre.

In this glowing eulogy of his father there is doubtless a certain amount of pious exaggeration. The man was a true Toulousian, a fine singer, an occasional performer on the violin, an improviser in everything, with a natural gift for drawing and a plastic sense common among his compatriots. That he would have been "one of the first artists of his time" if he had had the advantage of studying in Paris is manifestly absurd. His work shows a want of vigour, of originality, of invention. He had a certain correctness of eye and skill of hand, with some taste for arrangement and effect. That was sufficient for the plaster decorations with which he was mainly occupied, and even for the little portraits in miniature or red chalk which he undertook. But he could not go beyond this, and the only attempt to paint an important picture which he made marks clearly the limits of his talent. His private life was somewhat irregular. He was a great lover of the fair sex, and towards the end of his life his wife was compelled to leave his home.