Ingres' early female body paintings
What Ingres prefers and is better at is depicting female beauty. The biggest difference from his teacher David is that Ingres devoted all his extraordinary talents to exploring and depicting the female body, thus moving away from politics and grand narratives. Only a beautiful woman can stimulate his creative enthusiasm.
In this regard, he achieved something that surpassed all his predecessors and became a master of masters. His series of masterpieces, such as The Lady of the Grand Palace and The Bath Girl of the Walpinson, were completed during his first 20 years in Italy.
Ingres (The Bath Lady of Wappinson, 1808)
"The Bath Lady of Wappingsong" seems simple, but it actually costs a lot of ingenuity from the artist. Ingres' ingenuity lies in the fact that he does not paint the front of the carcass, but makes it turn away from the viewer. Although some parts of the bathing woman are clearly intentionally drawn, such as the soft soles of her feet, the nape of the neck, and the delicate back, we still cannot see her face. It's a crowded scene, and the silence is broken by the flowing water. Perhaps, she was intently feeling the sound of running water in her private world.
Ingres (Omiya Lady, 1814)
This "Lady of the Great Palace" has been called an unprecedented work. The painting is simple, the woman lies on her side on a messy pile of futons, and one corner of the curtain is pressed against her leg with her right hand, and she also holds a fan made of peacock feathers, which covers the woman's hips. Ingres seems to have exhausted the means of color transition, from ruddy, to golden, to whiteness under the light. At this time, the woman turned around, she was wrapped in a Middle Eastern style turban on her head, her facial features were delicate, delicate, her skin was spotless, and the woman's head and hips were in the middle of the curved waist.
Although she is naked, the palace maid looks inaccessible and rejects people thousands of miles away. She twists her body and leaves only her back for the audience. There was not a trace of warmth in her sluggish and indifferent gaze. The blurred and dim background, the curtain fabric and the cool silver metallic tones of the bedding accentuate the indifferent image of the characters.
We hardly find any sensory stimulation on this painting, neither the magnificent plot nor the bare human organs, this painting contains more of an appreciation of human beauty on a spiritual level.
Most people will marvel at her beauty at first glance at this painting, but if you look closely, you will find that the waist of this lady of the great palace seems to be a little too slender. Some critics have even been very specific about the woman's extra three vertebrae. Ingres was fully aware of the problem with his back, but he did not regret distorting the model's physiology at all, because in order to create a more pleasing and sensual body curve.
The charisma of Ingres' female portraits
Ingres' achievements in portraiture are very remarkable, especially his portraits of women. It can be said that Ingres perfectly expressed the cult of ideal female beauty in the 19th century.
Among his many portraits of women, this Portrait of the Countess of Ausunville is particularly remarkable. Usually, the portrait of such a noble lady will be painted relatively formally, both in posture and expression. However, in this portrait, which is not too small, the painter freely paints the voice and smile of the noble lady in a more relaxed state, without losing the peculiarities of her identity and cultivation.
Ingres (Countess of Osunville, 1845)
Here, Madame Osonvieux gracefully turns her head to the side and points her index finger to her chin, as if arranging a wonderful support for the avatar. Her beautiful eyes gaze affectionately at the painter or viewer, but seem to be just right.
In order to achieve the stability of the composition and allow the viewer to form a confrontation with the character, Ingres needs to raise the viewer's attention upward. So he arranged a mirror through which the smooth back of the neck and the bright red hair card were reflected, so that the upper part of the picture had more bright colors, thus attracting more attention from the viewer.
Ingres, Portrait of the Countess of Osunville (detail)
Another example is his "Princess de Bruy". What attracts us is not the beauty of this woman, but the beauty of the painting itself. Whether it's smooth hair, a necklace of pure gold, transparent lace, satin clothes, pearl bracelets, sofa satin, embroidered gold capes on it... It's all for people to see and watch. 
Ingres (Princess de Bruy, 1853)
Can we remember the portraits of people painted by Rembrandt? He doesn't work on this kind of thing, he simply sinks all the details into the darkness, carefully portraying only the face, or even just the light-receiving part of the face, obviously he is pursuing something else in the picture. And Ingres pursues the beauty of the picture itself, he is devoted to every detail, they quietly radiate light in their own positions, and the result is that the whole picture is absolutely exquisite and flawless.
However, Ingres' own favorite portrait may be this "Portrait of Madame Muatsière". Madame Muatsier was the most popular socialite of her time and was known as the most beautiful woman in Paris.
Ingres (Portrait of Madame Muatsier, 1856)
Ingres painted two paintings for Madame Muvaciae, one standing.
Ingres (Statue of Madame Muvaccière, 1851)
Ingres' immortal masterpiece "Spring"
This "Spring" is one of Ingres' immortal masterpieces, and probably one of the most familiar Western paintings in our Chinese. It is completely uncomplicated in composition, there is only one person, she is placed straight in the middle of the picture to face the audience, this painting has no combination of characters, layers, that is, simplicity. The background is particularly simple, with rocks and trees behind the figures, but they are almost flat, so that after simplifying the background, everyone's attention is on the beauty in the foreground.
Ingres (Quan, 1856)
The beauty stood facing the audience, and we saw that her body was curved, her legs were slightly crooked, and her waist was soft and curved. Of course, this is because she has a jug on her shoulder, and her body naturally forms a dynamic, with her arm over her head to stabilize the jug, and the other hand supporting the flat mouth of the jug, so that the water in the jug flows down to the middle of the clear spring under her feet.
Her face, especially her expressions, is very soft and relaxed, just like her posture. Her lips opened slightly, as if she was smiling, and her whole face seemed very warm and kind. It can be said that only Ingres can show so movingly.
Ingres' women are full of temptation in clothes, but they look very innocent when they are naked.
Such an effect is really difficult to let go. Winckelmann said: "Beauty is like drawing water from a pure source, the more tasteless it is, the more beneficial it is." This sentence is the best annotation of the work "Spring".