Self-Portrait 1858

This is Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's self-portrait, made with oil on canvas at an unknown date and now located at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Ingres lived through a time of massive social and political upheaval in France, including the French Revolution and the rise and fall of Napoleon. He was a leading figure in the Académie des Beaux-Arts, an institution which dictated artistic standards and tastes in France. Ingres's style was seen as a continuation of the classical tradition and a reaction against the romanticism of artists like Delacroix. The self-portrait is an assertion of his status within the art world of France. To understand Ingres better, we can look at the archives of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and other historical documents from the period. These give a sense of how he and his art were perceived by his contemporaries and the institutions to which he belonged. Art, as we know it, is never created in a vacuum, and research like this is key to understanding its meaning.