Thus the painter of 'The Vow of Louis XIII.' and of 'St. Symphorien' stood half way between the cold idealism of the classicists and the brutal realism of the romanticists. It is but just to say, however, that in his _teaching_ Ingres was wholly one-sided, thinking no doubt that to gain a little, much must be demanded. In teaching that "drawing is everything, that all may be expressed by line, even smoke," he tended towards painting without relief, devoid of all planes. By dint of preaching austerity of tone and training his pupils to beware of colorists, he veiled his whole school in gray. The logical outcome of this was to drive painting into an extreme directly opposed to that which he wished to avoid; that is to say, into the dryness of sharply defined contours and a contempt for methods purely picturesque.
Such was unquestionably the harmful side of Ingres' influence. But, on the other hand, it was he who taught, by his works even more than by his words, that nature is idealized by freeing her from all unimportant details, by selecting only her significant traits; that in order not to petrify forms by generalizing them, we must simplify types by individual characteristics taken directly from life; that drawing, which appeals to the heart, is superior to color, which pleases the eye; that nude figures are more beautiful than clothed; that drapery is more artistic than costume; that the portrayal of human passions, in that they are eternal, is superior to any ethnographical representation of changing manners. In a word, that there is a higher and a lower order of art....
So powerful was the influence of this great artist as leader of the French school that it extended to all branches of art. Painting, sculpture, engraving, even architecture and music, were affected by his love of the great, his feeling for the beautiful. He cared for and he advocated what is everywhere purest and finest: Greek art of the most perfect periods, the marbles of Phidias, the frescos of Raphael, the engravings of Marcantonio, the music of Gluck and of Mozart, the poetry of Homer.
As a painter Ingres was no doubt unequal, but he was always admirable in some respect and always a master, even in his faults. Vast compositions were beyond the powers of his imagination, whose fire burned but briefly. It was only with difficulty and after many changes and hesitations that he was able to compose his pictures, but the composition was achieved with a severe taste and a sure touch, and was founded on some tradition carefully chosen and faithfully carried out. His short-breathed genius excelled above all in compositions of only one or two figures, such as 'OEdipus,' 'The Bather,' 'La Source,' 'Venus Anadyomene.'...