Lot Essay
A ricordo by the artist of his picture, The Dream of Ossian, commissioned in 1812 by Napoleon for the ceiling of his apartment in the Palazzo de Monte Cavallo on the Quirinal in Rome. Ingres was introduced to the Emperor by General Miollis, received the commission and chose to paint the Dream of Ossian, one of Napoleon's favorite themes taken from James Macpherson's Celtic epic poem. The picture which was completed in 1813 was, however, never hung. Upon his return from Rome in 1835 Ingres called for the picture to be returned to him in Paris where, sadly, he let his assistant and disciple, Raymond Balze, cut the picture down to an oval.
Ingres was clearly obsessed by the composition for most of his life. Six compositional drawings and two tracings are known related to the picture, of which all but two postdate the composition. The earliest drawing is in a private collection in Montauban and may date from before the artist's departure to Rome in 1806. It is connected to a manuscript note, now in the Museum at Montauban, which is written in Ingres' youthful hand. Two watercolor drawings, one at the Fogg and the other at the Louvre, differ slightly from the painting in its original form and are recorded in an engraving by Raveil. These two studies like the present drawing were inscribed by Ingres in later years. The Fogg's sheet is signed 'Ingres Inv. epinx. Roma 1809' and, although dated correctly according to Dr. Hans Naef, is inscribed using 'pinx' a word that Ingres employed only after 1812. The Louvre sheet which differs markedly from the picture is similarly inscribed 'Ingres in.epinx.Roma in Oedibus Montecaval.1812'. Interestingly the present sheet is signed 'Ingres pinx.Roma 1811' revealing that Ingres, later in life, most likely around 1824 according to Lapauze, had forgotten the year when he had painted the composition. The dedication which follows this inscription 'á son ami et cher confrére Hippolyte Lebas'. Lebas, is to a fellow academician, an architect who had entered the Institut in 1825, the same year as Ingres. Finally, shortly before his death in January of 1867, Ingres drew the composition one last time, adding a new figure behind Ossian, Malvina. This sheet is now at Montauban.
It is clear, therefore, that Ingres felt compelled to repeat without alteration on numerous occasions spanning 60 years, a composition that he had first worked out in 1806. The key to Ingres' infatuation with this composition lies more in the context of the original commission and its content, than with the poetic work of Macpherson, from which he borrowed no other subjects.
Ingres' choice of Ossian as a subject in 1812 may have had more to do with his patron's taste, as Napoleon's interest in Macpherson's works was well known. During the Egyptian campaign, Napoleon frequently read aloud passages from Le Mourneur's French translation of the poems to his staff, A.V. Arnault Souvenir d'un Sexagenaire, Paris, 1833. During his final exile on Saint Helena, Napoleon took Cesarotti's Italian translation with him. In better times the Emperor had commissioned paintings inspired by Ossian for Malmaison from Baron Gérard and Girodet, thereby establishing the poems in the forefront of taste in France. Ingres was clearly allying himself with the two older and, at the time, more respected masters by his choice of subject.
A comparison between Ingres' treatment of Ossian with that of Gérard for Malmaison, reveals how the younger artist had begun to forge his own personal style, although still rooted in the tradition of David. Gérard in Ossian évosue les fauformes au lon de la harpeur les bords du hora paints the inspired blind bard passionately playing his instrument, while Ingres shows an elderly man asleep on his harp. As Werner Hoffman points out, Gérard makes no real distinction between the musician and the Ghosts that he is summoning around him, while Ingres clearly separates the dreaming man from the ethereal spirit world of his dreams. The pose of Gérard's Ossian is inspired by David's Belisarius, while Ingres' composition alludes repeatedly to the Antique. The figure on the left of Ossian is inspired by a number of Roman sculptures, including the The Nymph with a Shell, the Castor and Pollux and soldiers from a Roman relief. Ingres was thus separating himself from his predecessors by rejecting the art of David, and relying instead on a personal interpretation of classicism. By the time Ingres painted the Dream of Ossian Macpherson's poem had lost much of its former luster in the public's mind. James Macpherson had collected mythical folktales on his trips to the Scottish Highlands, and had used them as the basis for epic poems. After the publication of these tales from 1760 to 1773 Europe discovered an entirely new repertoire of myths, which quite unlike Greek or Roman mythology had never been exploited. However, by 1805 the Highland Society of Edinburgh had revealed the extent to which the poems were really the creation of Macpherson. It is revealing that the characters are precisely identified in Gérard's and Girodet's pictures, whereas only Ossian is identifiable in Ingres' painting. Ingres' painting is more a neo-classical exercise than an illustration of a specific episode. It is ironic that this painting, painted after Macpherson's poem had been exposed as a fraud, was to be the last, and perhaps greatest, Ossianic picture in France
Ingres was clearly obsessed by the composition for most of his life. Six compositional drawings and two tracings are known related to the picture, of which all but two postdate the composition. The earliest drawing is in a private collection in Montauban and may date from before the artist's departure to Rome in 1806. It is connected to a manuscript note, now in the Museum at Montauban, which is written in Ingres' youthful hand. Two watercolor drawings, one at the Fogg and the other at the Louvre, differ slightly from the painting in its original form and are recorded in an engraving by Raveil. These two studies like the present drawing were inscribed by Ingres in later years. The Fogg's sheet is signed 'Ingres Inv. epinx. Roma 1809' and, although dated correctly according to Dr. Hans Naef, is inscribed using 'pinx' a word that Ingres employed only after 1812. The Louvre sheet which differs markedly from the picture is similarly inscribed 'Ingres in.epinx.Roma in Oedibus Montecaval.1812'. Interestingly the present sheet is signed 'Ingres pinx.Roma 1811' revealing that Ingres, later in life, most likely around 1824 according to Lapauze, had forgotten the year when he had painted the composition. The dedication which follows this inscription 'á son ami et cher confrére Hippolyte Lebas'. Lebas, is to a fellow academician, an architect who had entered the Institut in 1825, the same year as Ingres. Finally, shortly before his death in January of 1867, Ingres drew the composition one last time, adding a new figure behind Ossian, Malvina. This sheet is now at Montauban.
It is clear, therefore, that Ingres felt compelled to repeat without alteration on numerous occasions spanning 60 years, a composition that he had first worked out in 1806. The key to Ingres' infatuation with this composition lies more in the context of the original commission and its content, than with the poetic work of Macpherson, from which he borrowed no other subjects.
Ingres' choice of Ossian as a subject in 1812 may have had more to do with his patron's taste, as Napoleon's interest in Macpherson's works was well known. During the Egyptian campaign, Napoleon frequently read aloud passages from Le Mourneur's French translation of the poems to his staff, A.V. Arnault Souvenir d'un Sexagenaire, Paris, 1833. During his final exile on Saint Helena, Napoleon took Cesarotti's Italian translation with him. In better times the Emperor had commissioned paintings inspired by Ossian for Malmaison from Baron Gérard and Girodet, thereby establishing the poems in the forefront of taste in France. Ingres was clearly allying himself with the two older and, at the time, more respected masters by his choice of subject.
A comparison between Ingres' treatment of Ossian with that of Gérard for Malmaison, reveals how the younger artist had begun to forge his own personal style, although still rooted in the tradition of David. Gérard in Ossian évosue les fauformes au lon de la harpeur les bords du hora paints the inspired blind bard passionately playing his instrument, while Ingres shows an elderly man asleep on his harp. As Werner Hoffman points out, Gérard makes no real distinction between the musician and the Ghosts that he is summoning around him, while Ingres clearly separates the dreaming man from the ethereal spirit world of his dreams. The pose of Gérard's Ossian is inspired by David's Belisarius, while Ingres' composition alludes repeatedly to the Antique. The figure on the left of Ossian is inspired by a number of Roman sculptures, including the The Nymph with a Shell, the Castor and Pollux and soldiers from a Roman relief. Ingres was thus separating himself from his predecessors by rejecting the art of David, and relying instead on a personal interpretation of classicism. By the time Ingres painted the Dream of Ossian Macpherson's poem had lost much of its former luster in the public's mind. James Macpherson had collected mythical folktales on his trips to the Scottish Highlands, and had used them as the basis for epic poems. After the publication of these tales from 1760 to 1773 Europe discovered an entirely new repertoire of myths, which quite unlike Greek or Roman mythology had never been exploited. However, by 1805 the Highland Society of Edinburgh had revealed the extent to which the poems were really the creation of Macpherson. It is revealing that the characters are precisely identified in Gérard's and Girodet's pictures, whereas only Ossian is identifiable in Ingres' painting. Ingres' painting is more a neo-classical exercise than an illustration of a specific episode. It is ironic that this painting, painted after Macpherson's poem had been exposed as a fraud, was to be the last, and perhaps greatest, Ossianic picture in France