Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was born on August 29, 1780, the son of a house decorator, painter and sculptor of Montauban, France. At the age of nine he was already turning out drawings of astonishing maturity. His father taught him the rudiments of painting and drawing and made him learn the violin. He studied painting under several local instructors at the Academy in Toulouse; he also played the violin in the orchestra there and was for a time tempted to renounce painting in favor of music. But his teachers foresaw a successful career for him and encouraged him to follow his artistic bent.

He went to Paris at the age of seventeen to study with the great neo-classic painter David, whose style was based on a...