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''Portrait of Monsieur Bertin'' is an 1832 oil-on-canvas painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It depicts Louis-François Bertin (1766–1841), the writer, art collector and director of the pro-royalist ''Journal des débats''. Ingres completed the portrait during his period of first success: having achieved acclaim as a history painter, he accepted portrait commissions with reluctance, regarding them as a distraction from more important work. Ingres presents Bertin as a personification of the commercially minded leaders of the liberal reign of Louis Philippe I. Bertin was a politically active member of the French upper-middle class who was physically imposing and self-assured but warm and engaging to those who earned his trust. The painting had a prolonged genesis; Ingres agonised over the pose and made several preparatory sketches. He faithfully captures the sitter's character, but in a manner that bordered on caricature; although widely praised the portrait inspired witticisms such as Édouard Manet's "Buddha of the bourgeoisie" and Théophile Gautier's "bourgeois Caesar".〔Boime (2004), 325〕 Bertin emanates a restless energy and imposing bulk. He sits in three-quarter profile against a brown ground lit from the right, the polish of his chair reflects light from an unseen window. The work is an unflinchingly realistic depiction of aging. Ingres emphasises the furrowed skin and thinning hair of an overweight man, yet Bertin maintains an air of resolve and determination. The portrait was a critical and popular success, though it displeased Bertin's immediate family. It was praised at the Paris Salon of 1833, and was influential for both academic painters such as Léon Bonnat and modernists including Pablo Picasso and Félix Vallotton. It is widely regarded as Ingres' finest male portrait, and has been at the Musée du Louvre since 1897. ==Background== Louis-François Bertin was 66 in 1832, the year of the portrait.〔 He had befriended Ingres either through his son Édouard Bertin, a student of the painter,〔Pomarède (2006), 273〕 or via Étienne-Jean Delécluze, Ingres' friend and the ''Journals art critic.〔Ingres and Delécluze first met in Jacques-Louis David's studio in 1797. See Rosenblum (1999), 28〕 In either case the genesis of the commission is unknown. Bertin was a leader of the French upper class and a supporter of Louis-Philippe and the Bourbon Restoration. He was a director of the ''Le Moniteur Universel'' until 1823, when the ''Journal des débats'' became the recognised organ of the liberal-constitutional opposition after he had come to criticize absolutism. He eventually gave his support to the July Monarchy. The ''Journal'' supported contemporary art, and Bertin himself was a patron and collector who cultivated friendships with writers, painters and other artists.〔Burroughs (1946), 156〕 Ingres was sufficiently intrigued by the possibilities of Bertin's personality to accept the commission.〔 The painting was completed within a month, during Ingres' frequent visits to Bertin's estate of retreat, Le Château des Roches, in Bièvres, Essonne. Ingres made daily visits, as Bertin entertained guests such as Victor Hugo and his mistress Juliette Drouet, Hector Berlioz, and later Franz Liszt and Charles Gounod.〔Shelton (1999), 318〕 Ingres later made drawings of the Bertin family, including a notable depiction of his host's wife, and sketches of their son Armand and daughter-in-law, Cécile. The portrait of Armand shows his physical resemblance to his father.〔Shelton (1999), 320〕 Ingres' early career coincided with the Romantic movement, which reacted against the prevailing neoclassical style. Neoclassicism in French art had developed as artists saw themselves as part of the cultural center of Europe, and France as the successor to Rome.〔Zamoyski (2005), 8〕 Romantic painting was freer and more expressive, preoccupied more with colour than with line or form, and more focused on style than on subject matter. Paintings based on classical themes fell out of fashion, replaced by contemporary rather than historical subject matter, especially in portraiture. Ingres resisted this trend,〔Ingres' critically maligned ''The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian'' has been described as "the perfect illustration of the system's breakdown". See Jover (2005), 180〕 and wrote, "The history painter shows the species in general; while the portrait painter represents only the specific individual—a model often ordinary and full of shortcomings."〔Jover (2005), 180–2〕 From his early career, Ingres' main source of income was commissioned portraits, a genre he dismissed as lacking in grandeur. The success of his ''The Vow of Louis XIII'' at the 1824 Salon marked an abrupt change in his fortunes: he received a series of commissions for large history paintings, and for the next decade he painted few portraits.〔Mongan and Naef (1967), xxi〕 His financial difficulties behind him, Ingres could afford to concentrate on historical subjects, although he remained much sought-after as a portraitist. He wrote in 1847, "Damned portraits, they are so difficult to do that they prevent me getting on with greater things that I could do more quickly."〔Rosenblum (1990), 114〕 Ingres was usually more successful with female than male portraits. Ingres' 1814 ''Portrait of Madame de Senonnes'' was described as "to the feminine what the Louvre's Bertin is to the masculine". The sitter for his 1848 ''Portrait of Baronne de Rothschild'' looks out at the viewer with the same directness as Bertin, but is softened by her attractive dress and relaxed pose; she is engaging and sympathetic rather than tough and imposing.〔Rosenblum (1990), 114〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Portrait of Monsieur Bertin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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