Portraits Of Ingres And Reynolds :: essays research papers fc

The portrait. A single person immortalized forever on canvas. At first glance, you all cover the subject. With a more analytical eye, though, you not only see the image but you begin to hear the voice of the painter and of his time. This is what I hope to do, to feel and understand the mind of the painter Ingres when he piebald Louis-Francois Bertin and Reynolds when he painted General John Burgoyne. In the portrait of Bertin, Ingres has captured on canvas a man who has never been pampered in his life. You feel by looking at him that this is a man who has worked for everything that he has ever receive in his life. Why do you feel this, though? Lets begin with the color chosen for this piece.The colors revolve around brown, self-aggrandizing you the impression of something very down to earth. The background of the painting is basically mavin solid brown. Bertin occupies the whole bottom section of the painting, with nothing of his body issue above three-fourths of the canvas. He is the ground, below stock-still the earth tones of the background. He has on a black suit, brown vest, and white shirt, as well. These colors working together allow you to make certain assumptions about him. He looks like a working man, which he was. Louis-Francois Bertin (1766-1841), was one of the great leadership of the French upper middle class, a businessman and a diary keeper (Rosenblum, 134). This would explain the one striking color in the piece, the red.Bertin is sitting on a red cushion, red being a color classically associated with royalty. This could be a commentary on Bertins life on a whole. His journal, the Journal des Debats was a strong supporter of big(p) journalism in a time when France, the monarchs from the self proclaimed catnap Bonaparte to King Charles X, wanted the return of an absolute monarch in France. The people were not happy with this and Bertins newspaper spread this displeasure. Bertin was even exiled for a period of time by Napoleon Bonapar te for his monarchist views. He wanted a constitutional monarch set up. But, after(prenominal) the fall of Bonaparte, Bertin returned and continued his life, prospering. Monet even called this portrait the Buddha of bourgeoisie (Rosenblum, 134). This portrait should be looked upon as the pinnacle image of the bourgeoisie of the time.