Small of stature, square of figure, rough of manner, devoid of
distinction, Ingres's personality afforded a great contrast to the
refinement of his taste and the charm of his feminine figures. I can
hardly conceive how a man thus built could show such delicacy in the
choice of his subjects; how those short, thick fingers could draw such
lovely, graceful forms.
Ingres hated academic conventionality; he mingled the Florentine and
Greek schools; he sought the ideal not outside of reality but in its
very essence, in the reconciliation of style with nature. Color he
considered of secondary importance; he not only subordinated it
voluntarily to drawing, but he did not have a natural gift for it.
Ingres is the artist who has best expressed the voluptuousness not of
flesh but of form; who has felt feminine beauty most profoundly
and chastely.